by Anastasia Pagoulatou – Sales Advisor at Stop
With the current COVID-19 pandemic, more and more people need to use respiratory protection, in order to filter the inhaled air and be protected.
We often hear about N95 and FFP masks, without knowing what to choose, so let’s take a minute to understand what we are looking for.
European norm EN 149:2001+A1:2009, which refers to filtering half masks to protect against particles, mentions that these are classified according to their filtering efficiency and their maximum total inward leakage. According to that, there are 3 classes of devices:
1. FFP1 with total inward leakage not greater than 25%
2. FFP2 with total inward leakage not greater than 11%
3. FFP3 with total inward leakage not greater than 5%
As a result, FFP1 masks, filter at least the 75% of total inhaled air, FFP2 masks 89% and FFP3 masks 95% accordingly. The protection provided by an FFP3 device, includes that provided by lower class or classes. So the FFP3 filter mask, offers the higher protection against particles.
A N95 mask or N95 respirator is a particle-filtering facepiece respirator that meets the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and is basically manufactured to serve the US market.
According to NIOSH:
“A N95 respirator is effective in protecting workers from the virus that causes COVID-19. “N95” refers to a class of respirator filter that removes at least 95% of very small (0.3 micron) particles from the air. Some people have mistakenly claimed that since the virus that causes COVID-19 is approximately 0.1 microns in size, wearing an N95 respirator will not protect against such a small virus. That mistaken claim appears to result from a misunderstanding of how respirators work.
When an infected person expels the virus into the air by activities like talking, coughing, or sneezing, the airborne particles are composed of more than just the virus. The virus is part of larger particles that are made up of water and other materials such as mucus. These larger particles are easily trapped and filtered out by N95 respirators because they are too big to pass through the filter. This is called mechanical filtration. But mechanical filtration is just one of the ways that respirator filters keep particles from passing through the filter. An electrostatic charge also attracts particles to fibers in the filter, where the particles become stuck. In addition, the smallest particles constantly move around (called “Brownian motion”), and are very likely to hit a filter fiber and stick to it.”
No matter what type of mask you choose, it is important to use it correctly.