Exhale Filtering Masks Still Recommended

I am familiar with OSHA regulations - had to implement/enforce them in the reserves and active duty for nearly 2 decades. OSHA is about erring greatly on the side of caution toward making a potentially hazardous work environment routinely safe. If OSHA were calling the shots, no one would ever go outside until we have global herd immunity and a highly effective vaccine. This pandemic is a much different context. Lives require economics to continue more than what strict lockdowns can save.

When you go outside, it’s a warzone of pathogens: viruses, bacteria, mold, pollen, parasites, radiation, pollution, dust, even prions - all are dangerous to our bodies. If we implemented OSHA into everyday activities, we’d be bubble boys and girls, living in a sterilized environment that goes with us wherever we go. Such would be more dangerous if that environment was compromised because for many viruses our immune system has a “memory” that fades in the absence of “use”. So erring greatly on the side of caution as you go “out into the world” simply is hard to implement whether the Coronavirus is lurking about or not.

Wearing a mask that filters inhale can only be partially effective because you can still get infected if the virus hits your eyes (unless you wear full facial gear). Wearing a mask that filters exhale is what should be encouraged and what I have been encouraging since the ides of March. Such has always been my position not the N95 masks or even the expensive hazmat masks we had to be trained on in the Air Force. Those masks don’t filter on exhale, and wearing a mask as you go out is mostly about reducing transmission - keeping viral load as much in your body and not sharing it.

The basic “surgical” mask (or FDA approved 3D printed w/ HEPA furnace material filter that I wear) indeed has a life expectancy (mine has a vent with a removable filter that can easily be replaced). Unfortunately, most of the mask guidelines came from filtering bacteria not viruses, especially tiny viruses like the Coronavirus. Those guidelines are changing every two hours. So the 20-30 minute lifespan for viruses makes sense. Then again, the good furnace filters that I use in my mask claim to have a longer lifespan than 20-30 minutes that includes filtering viruses.

But when looking at the warzone, wearing anything that can slow the spread through exhaling has been recommended for a good reason. It’s to take a bite out of the statistics of cases by reducing transmission, even if it just a little.

If your mask gets saturated and virus particles on the outside of the masks become airborne, they are not the freshly replicated viruses that are on your breath. Although the Coronavirus has been shown to live for hours on surfaces, those are under favorable conditions. The Coronavirus simply doesn’t have the tough shell (envelope protein or E for short) that other viruses have like the Norovirus (a common cause of severe gastroenteritis, AKA “stomach flu”). Also, UV light kills the virus. So masks exposed to sunlight may deactivate viral particles near and on the outside, potentially increasing the masks’ lifespan

The real question is this: what are we willing to do to slow transmission of the virus? Wearing a mask has merit beyond social demonstration unlike kneeling in solidarity (don’t get me started on that).

The pragmatic thing to do overall with this COVID-19 pandemic is to do like Florida has is to first and foremost, protect the most vulnerable. Then the rest of us can hide inside for months or years until we have OSHA-like safeguards in place. Or we can face the warzone equipped with a little knowledge and some tools (like masks and hand sanitizer) while keeping ourselves healthy and our immune system at maximum effectiveness.

I chose the latter.