Hard and soft FFP2 respirators

[alan_m]

I find that tightly folding the nose metal/wire band in half before fitting the mask to the my nose give a better fit and minimises the steaming up of my glasses.

[Robin]

Depends what you mean by "ordinary". But if you mean your bog standard 3 layers of mixed fabrics (as in the decent "surgical" ones you can buy or the ones I've DIY'd) I'd like to know your evidence that they are worse for people around you than your vented mask. (And by evidence I'd like a little more than e.g. your glasses misting up. I don't say it's impossible that every government that's mandated masks and every authority that states they are effective is lying. But have you tried putting your hand in front of your valve?)

[Pamela]

I've never tried a swimmer's nose clip. Presumably the clip squeezes tightly and shuts off air flow through the nostrils. Isn't that uncomfortable? Wouldn't that make it harder to breath?

[Jeff Layman]

No, I don't test myself. Being triple-vaccinated, there is a low chance of my being infectious. From what I understand, though, vaccination won't stop an infected person passing on the disease, but I'm happy to be corrected on that. If everyone else was wearing a surgical-type mask, and wearing it properly, you might have an argument about those wearing valved masks being selfish. However, over the past few weeks, I would say that over 90% of those in my local supermarket were not wearing any mask at all, and of the remainder half were "wearing" the mask under their nose, and occasionally under their chin! So if they can't be bothered to protect themselves, why should I risk exposing myself to

*their* possibly infected breath?

The major benefit of a mask is to the wearer to stop them getting infected (in exactly the same way that vaccination does). Surgical type masks do little or nothing to prevent the wearer getting infected. They help, but do not stop, others getting infected because they do not filter out all expired viral particles. If everybody wore only surgical masks infection spread would be slower, but would take place nonetheless. Even multi-layer cloth masks block only 50 - 70% of exhaled particles.

If everybody wore FFP3 masks, valved or not, infection spread would come to a halt much more quickly.

As regards my use of valved FFP3 masks, that was all I could get last year. I continue to wash and wear them. As to the /theoretical/ infection risk via exhalation through the valve, perhaps this paper puts it in perspective

. As far as I am aware, nobody has studied the actual infection risk, whereas the infection risk of simple masks is known, if somewhat variable. See . They lower, but do not prevent infection. For balance, there are reports such as at , but if you read past the headline you wind find "...that one of the two infected guests used a valve-equipped face mask when he opened his hotel door to retrieve delivered meals and deposit trash, and was maskless at times." Maskless at times? How often, and if he wasn't wearing a mask at all in his room, no doubt the air was full of virus particles, which could get out when the door was open.

Most information appears to come from 2020, and there has been a paucity of updated info this year. The best I've found is the long webpage at

. There is a paragraph about halfway down - "Exhalation valves in masks", which mentions valved masks specifically, but even that references studies from 2020.

[David]

Yes, it is uncomfortable and makes it harder to breathe. Encourages breathing out through the mouth, though. This time of year my glasses fog up so badly that this compensates for the discomfort.

For a quick test, use one hand to pinch the mask to the bridge of the nose and see if this makes a marked difference.

Cheers

Dave R

[GB]

I've had a look at it, and I think you're right. I thought there was more of a labyrinth around the valve to catch droplets than there actually is.

If all else fails, I'll go back to using these masks for DIY.

[Robin]

If you've not already done so do please try wearing your valved mask /over/ a simple cloth one. I'd not want to get the blame for your catching SARS-Cov-2. Or see if you cover the valve on the outside. I've managed to cover the valves on our 3M 4000 series with bits from Hepaflo bags held on by an elastic band or (for newer "+" ones) thin wire. Looks odd but then I /am/ Yosser Hughes useless apprentice :(

[Steve Walker]

Or just tape over the valve - there should still be enough exposed material to work as an unvalved mask - indeed, don't the valved masks only pass air through when exhaling, so all inhaled air has to come through the rest of the mask.