On market, there are so many kinds of masks, how do we distinguish them and how to choose?
There are two main categories: one is medical masks, one is civilian masks. Medical surgical mask, medical protective mask, N95, FFP2 can be used for protection in medical institutions, KN95 can not be used in medical institutions,? the general public can choose by themselves.What are the differences?
1. Medical: disposable surgical mask (medical nursing mask)
Disposable surgical masks, medical care, general standards: YY0969, usually cannot guarantee the filterability of pathogenic microorganisms, dust. It is? commonly used in conventional nursing care in the hospital, main effect is barrier between medical staff and patients daily cross contamination, no particular high demand. If used by the general public, that is to stop bad breath, the actual effect of protection is not very ideal.
2. Medical: medical surgical mask: yy0469-2011
Medical surgical mask must refer to the medical standard yy0469-2011 for production. If the enterprise sets its own enterprise standard to meet or even higher than the requirements of YY0469, it can also be printed on the mask packaging (therefore, it is not necessary to have YY0469 to be qualified, specific or to see the name of the mask and enterprise standard to identify); Surgical masks are mainly used for invasive operations such as surgery and catheterization in hospitals.
YY0469 has bacteria filtration performance requirements to the surgical masks, general filtration efficiency of non oily grains should reach more than 30%, filtering efficiency to achieve more than 95% of bacteria (note, here is not the meaning of N95, don’t be confused with medical respirator), in addition, medical surgical masks have requirement for synthetic blood penetrating (can be as simple as anti permeability) in production. The masks are generally divided into three layers: the internal water absorbing layer, middle filter layer, waterproof layer outside, each layer has a special role.
3. Medical: medical protective mask
Medical protective mask, next is disposable medical nursing mask, also known as medical protective mask, in line with gb19083-2003 standard, the important technical indicators include non-oily particle filtration efficiency and airflow resistance. For diameter (0.24 ± 0.06), the filtration efficiency of sodium oxide aerosol of m is not less than 95%, that is, N95 and above. Inspiratory resistance should not exceed 343.2 pa.
4. Civil use: KN mask: gb2626-2006/2019
Kn represents non oil particles, and KP represents oil and non oil particles. Kn is a respirator for the prevention of non oil particles (dust, smoke, microorganism: virus, pathogen) specified in Chinese standard gb2626-2006. In the national standard, the protection level is divided into Kn90, kn95 and kn100, kp90, kp95 and kp100. Kn refers to the prevention of non oil particles, and KP refers to the prevention of oil particles + non oil particles. The latter value represents the protection rate for ultrafine particles. Kn100 respirator and kp100 respirator are more than 99.97% for the protection efficiency of ultrafine particles. Therefore, kp100 mask and kn100 mask with higher protection level in the national standard can provide better protection effect than N95 mask.
See here, don’t know if you have found a problem, just the front, have to tell everyone about medical surgical masks (YY0469-2011) for non-oily filterability of particulate matter for 30% or more, the less than 95% or higher requirement in KN95 mask a lot, so a lot of people naturally think that KN type mask, especially the type KN95 masks, definitely better than the effect of medical surgical masks! Is that absolute?
Surgical masks have impermeable requirements, generally divided into three layers, the outermost layer for the waterproof layer, the most important reason to use masks in the medical environment is to isolate bacteria, and bacteria once attached to the surface of the mask, it is very easy to follow the moist mask directly into the mask, so, impermeable is very important!
And throughout the whole GB2626, there is no standard requirements for KN mask waterproof, not only KN mask, KP mask is not, that is to say, meet all the standards of GB2626 qualified masks, there is no anti-penetration requirements. At this point, KN masks are not as good as surgical masks!
FAQ 1: Is a breathing valve good or bad?
Because of wearing a mask of doctors and patients, all can’t promise you must be healthy, don’t (incubation period with infectious) with the virus, and masks airflow with exhalation valve is a one-way only protection, is not good to cut off the route of transmission, from the outbreak control perspective, the two-way protection is the right way, so don’t recommend this type of face mask.
FAQ 2: About the safety mask standard: gb19083-2010 and GB2626 which is good?
Misunderstanding: China’s GB19083 standard does not have “N95”, but the use of “level 1”, “level 2” and “level 3” to express the filter efficiency level, generally level 1 can meet the “N95/KN95” requirements. That is to say, as long as any “medical respirator” that conforms to GB19083 standard, the filtration efficiency of N95 and KN95 has been achieved absolutely.
Difference: GB19083 is the highest standard of medical execution, this is the standard of medical execution, this kind of mask you will find that there is no breathing valve, and are used in the medical scene, of course, if you buy it can also be outside civilian use.
GB2626 is usually used for civilian masks, mainly used as some protection such as painting, welding, industrial and haze and other non-medical scenarios of protection, such as the most common 3M brand KN95 masks is this type!
In addition, like the medical surgical mask of yy0469-2011, GB19083 also puts forward the requirements of “synthetic blood penetration”, and there is also a parameter requirement of “surface wetting resistance”, which makes clear the protective effect of the medical protective mask on blood and fluid, which is not in GB2626 (KN type). See the difference? There is no anti – flying liquid spillage for civil use.