The middle layer of surgical masks is melt-blown fabric, which is the core material for virus rejection. The front and back covers are made of PP, with a fiber diameter of approximately 20 µm. The fiber diameter of melt-blown fabric is approximately 1–5 µm thus, it exhibits high filtration performance that is sufficient for rejecting bacteria, suspended particles, droplets, and aerosols. Melt-blown fabric is the core material used in the production of surgical masks, and its major component is polypropylene (PP) ( Pu et al., 2018). Moreover, the inhalation of microplastics should be considered when wearing masks. However, the improper use of masks can increase the transmission risk of COVID-19. Consequently, reusing masks after a disinfection process or simply reusing them directly has become a common practice ( Song et al., 2020). However, given the shortage of surgical masks and the relatively high price of using them as disposable items, people have used cotton masks or other types of masks to replace surgical masks ( Shakya et al., 2017, Davies et al., 2013, Santos et al., 2020). Surgical and N95 masks have been regarded as the most effective masks for reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Wearing an N95 mask reduces the inhalation risk of spherical-type microplastics by 25.5 times compared with not wearing a mask.Īs the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spreads throughout the entire world, face masks have become a necessity for the citizens of many countries ( Greenhalgh and Howard, 2020, Chu et al., 2020). Ultraviolet disinfection exerts a relatively weak effect on fiber-like microplastic inhalation, and thus, it can be recommended as a treatment process for reusing masks if proven effective from microbiological standpoint. Reusing masks after they underwent different disinfection pretreatment processes can increase the risk of particle (e.g., granular microplastics) and fiber-like microplastic inhalation. N95 poses less fiber-like microplastic inhalation risk. Surgical, cotton, fashion, and activated carbon masks wearing pose higher fiber-like microplastic inhalation risk, while all masks generally reduced exposure when used under their supposed time (<4 h). Results implied that wearing masks considerably reduces the inhalation risk of particles (e.g., granular microplastics and unknown particles) even when they are worn continuously for 720 h. Microplastic inhalation caused by reusing masks that underwent various treatment processes was also tested. The present study used different types of commonly used masks to conduct breathing simulation experiments and investigate microplastic inhalation risk. The inhalation of microplastics due to the wearing of masks has rarely been reported. Wearing face masks has become the new normal worldwide due to the global spread of the coronavirus disease 2019.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |