The Difference Between Medical Masks And Ordinary Face Masks

Mar 20, 2020

The difference between medical masks and ordinary face masks

The characteristics of medical face masks are light, comfortable, odorless, non-glass fiber, non-irritating to the skin, waterproof, and can disinfect or remove pathogenic microorganisms on the media after disinfection to make them harmless; and Dust-proof, because of small breathing resistance and hygienic wearing, aerosol, dust, fume, mist, toxic gas and toxic vapor are adsorbed by the filter material, blocked and not inhaled by people, and effectively isolated from pollution sources.

Ordinary masks are fiber masks, and its flow blocking principle is a mechanical blocking effect. Through this layer of mechanical blocking, large particles can be blocked, but particles less than 5 microns in diameter cannot be blocked, let alone PM2.5 particles, but medical masks and medical disposable masks can block particles larger than 4 microns in diameter, so ordinary masks need to wear 16 layers to achieve the effect of medical face masks.

In addition to high sanitary requirements, medical protective masks should also have the function of effectively blocking liquid splashes. Because of the possibility of blood or infectious body fluid splashing during surgery, this spraying has some pressure and is not a general liquid infiltration. The ability of medical mask materials to block pressured fluid should be relatively high. Effective protection of medical staff.

Therefore, in the standards of medical protective masks, special testing methods are used to test the liquid barrier performance of such products. However, the 3M dust masks used in general industrial environments do not need this special requirement. Naturally there is no such requirement.

In addition, medical protective masks do not allow exhalation valves. This is because when a medical protective mask is allowed to be used as a surgical mask, if a mask with an exhalation valve is worn, the microorganisms carried in the exhaled breath will be directly discharged out of the mask, posing a threat to patients undergoing surgery. Many industrial protective masks have an exhalation valve design, but the price of a dust mask with an exhalation valve is much higher than without a valve.