The COVID-19 pandemic forced many countries to implement many restrictions to ensure people's safety from the viral infection. Different face masks are being developed, each claiming that they are efficient enough to prevent the transmission of the viral disease.
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New research identified which face covering is effective and which one is not, which could help lessen the further transmission of the virus. According to Prevention's latest report, public health officials worldwide are providing safety guidance to the public, including wearing a face covering when going out in public to prevent the rising COVID-19 infection cases during the global pandemic.
The journal Physics of Fluids published the research from Florida Atlantic University, which aims a little guidance when it comes to wearing face masks. According to the research, scientists used a mannequin head to track sneezes and coughs with a laser, which could detect droplets' spread.
The researchers used different cloth face masks on the mannequin and observed and tracked how many respiratory droplets got through the face coverings from the mannequin's sneezes, and coughs tracked how far the particles traveled.
According to Prevention, the scientists discovered that bandana-style face coverings. They folded mask face masks lessen the distance that the cough and sneeze particles traveled by 1/8 or 1/2 of what it should have traveled without any face covering. The research said that the most effective ones are cone-style face masks and well-fitted masks with multiple layers for quilting fabric.
The droplets only traveled 2.5 inches with a quilted face mask, and eight about inches when cone-style masks are used. Compared to the folded handkerchief, the droplets traveled more than 3 feet, and with a bandana made of T-shirt material, the droplets traveled 7 inches.
Here are the lists of facemasks from most to least effective.
1) Stitched mask made from quilting cotton
2) Cone masks
3) Mask made from a folded handkerchief
4) Bandana masks
"Our observations suggest that a higher thread count by itself is not sufficient to guarantee better stopping-capability; The bandana covering, which has the highest thread count among all the cloth masks tested, turned out to be the least effective," reminded by the researchers.
According to the report, the World Health Organization (WHO) released guidance on exactly what people should do look for in a face mask made for cloths in early June. Here's the guideline;
1) The inner layer of the face-covering should be made of cotton or other absorbent material.
2) There should be at least three layers of fabric.
3) The face mask's outer layer should be made of polyester/polyester blend or other non-absorbent material.
4) The middle layer of the face-covering should be made of polypropylene, or other non-woven material, which will be a barrier.
