It might not make any difference which is used other than the expected filtration rate (95% versus 99%)
It’s harder to breath in a N99 mask then in a N95 mask. It seems that this concern is enough to get hospitals to use N95 masks over N99 masks in health care settings where health care workers are constantly exposed to symptomatic ill patients.
I do think we need to get front line people taken care of first—and that will include both medical and other industries with dangerous environments we need to keep open.
That said, unless we’re claiming the 6 foot (or pick your number) limit is equivalent or better than the preferred mask ratings for the industry don’t we want to consider just what the mask rating equivalent to the social distance rule might be. We may well find that we have a lot of other alternatives that are just as good as 6 feet. That would pretty much free up all the N95 and above materials for those that really need them.
I really have to wonder if we don’t have some really low hanging fruit that for some reason no one wants to pick. The world has already conceded that any mask is better than none but we keep making the comparison of masks to the “gold standard” mask rather than the social distance standard. The latter seems more appropriate to me.
I am starting to look for the source analysis from Lydia Bourouiba’s research to see if that might shed some light.
It’s harder to breath in a N99 mask then in a N95 mask. It seems that this concern is enough to get hospitals to use N95 masks over N99 masks in health care settings where health care workers are constantly exposed to symptomatic ill patients.
I think it has more to do with N99 not being available in the filtering facepiece form which are the medical standard with very few exceptions.
I do think we need to get front line people taken care of first—and that will include both medical and other industries with dangerous environments we need to keep open.
That said, unless we’re claiming the 6 foot (or pick your number) limit is equivalent or better than the preferred mask ratings for the industry don’t we want to consider just what the mask rating equivalent to the social distance rule might be. We may well find that we have a lot of other alternatives that are just as good as 6 feet. That would pretty much free up all the N95 and above materials for those that really need them.
I really have to wonder if we don’t have some really low hanging fruit that for some reason no one wants to pick. The world has already conceded that any mask is better than none but we keep making the comparison of masks to the “gold standard” mask rather than the social distance standard. The latter seems more appropriate to me.
I am starting to look for the source analysis from Lydia Bourouiba’s research to see if that might shed some light.