COVID-19 Face Mask Effectiveness: Simple Candle Blow Test Will Tell You
In case you thought your homemade face mask is perfect to save you from COVID-19, you could be wrong. Here's the right way to test that.
With COVID-19 completely taking over our world, face masks have become more relevant than they ever were. So much so that it caused a massive shortage of PPEs and medical-grade face masks around the world.
Image For Representation/TOI
This forced authorities to ask people to make their own face coverings/masks and sure, people got really creative with it. We even started seeing several of these fabric masks in the market.
ALSO READ: How To Make Your Own Face Mask Using Just Cloth And Hair Ties
However, this also meant, that with different kinds of fabrics that were used to make these, not all of them would be equally effective against containing and spreading of the particles.
COVID-19 face mask effectiveness
To understand the effectiveness of the face mask you need to know how small the particle of COVID-19 really is. According to a study in the US National Library of Medicine, NIH, highlighted by the Conversation, the COVID-19 droplet particle is 0.08 micrometres small.
A typical fabric/cloth is roughly between 1 millimetre and 0.1 millimetres which means that COVID-19 can easily pass through the fabric because the fabric has big-enough holes.
Reuters
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But masks aren¡¯t designed to trap the virus entirely. They¡¯re actually designed to limit the distance these particles travel, upon sneezing, coughing or even talking. The idea is to not let the particle go farther than a metre.
Is your cloth face mask is effective?
Even though most of the masks are testing at facilities with proper machines, there is one test you can do to denote it to be somewhat effective.
This face mask effectiveness test is simple and easy to do, first highlighted by celebrity science host Bill Nye. He placed a candle on the table and tested out different kinds of masks and face covers by wearing them and trying to blow the candle off.
Listen to Bill Nye. pic.twitter.com/F34Ke3xlsC
¡ª Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) July 9, 2020
The masks with a tighter mesh (that is, with lesser gaps) will just make the flame of the candle jerk, but not extinguish it completely. If blowing through your face mask extinguishes the candle, then it's time to switch to a better face mask or add multiple layers to your existing homemade face mask to make it safer.
