Surgical and Respiratory Masks — An Effective Way to Protect Against Pathogens Transmitted by Droplets

 Skamex S.A.

Summary

Sur­gi­cal Masks Sur­gi­cal masks are a fun­da­men­tal equip­ment in every health­care facil­i­ty. They effec­tive­ly reduce the risk of infec­tion by bac­te­ria and virus­es trans­mit­ted via droplets. Var­i­ous mod­els are avail­able on the mar­ket, dif­fer­ing in con­struc­tion and mate­ri­als used. This allows med­ical pro­fes­sion­als to suc­cess­ful­ly select the appro­pri­ate mask for their needs and the med­ical pro­ce­dures they are cur­rent­ly per­form­ing.

Maski chirurgiczne – skuteczność ochrony

Sur­gi­cal masks, often also referred to as “med­ical masks” or “hygien­ic face masks,” are a fun­da­men­tal ele­ment of pro­tec­tion for both med­ical staff and patients against bac­te­ria and virus­es trans­mit­ted via droplets. For this rea­son, they are stan­dard equip­ment in every sur­gi­cal room or treat­ment office.

How­ev­er, in the cur­rent pan­dem­ic era, med­ical masks are also vis­i­ble in pub­lic spaces. Due to the intro­duced legal reg­u­la­tions, every­one must wear them in premis­es that are pub­licly acces­si­ble. This man­date applies to, among oth­ers, shop­ping malls, pub­lic restrooms, bars, stores, schools, and gov­ern­ment admin­is­tra­tion build­ings.

Accord­ing to stud­ies con­duct­ed for the WHO, wear­ing a sur­gi­cal mask can reduce the risk of infec­tion with a virus such as SARS-COV‑2 from 90% to 30% [1]. Par­tic­u­lar­ly, those who are already sick and spread­ing pathogens should wear them. Select­ed types of masks are capa­ble of fil­ter­ing up to 95% of pol­lu­tants and microor­gan­isms. This sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduces the amount of virus­es in their envi­ron­ment, there­by improv­ing the safe­ty lev­el of bystanders.

Medical Mask and Its Layers

Stan­dard sur­gi­cal masks are usu­al­ly made up of four lay­ers. Each of them, in addi­tion to fil­ter­ing air, serves a slight­ly dif­fer­ent func­tion.

Effectiveness of Filtration in Medical Masks

To deter­mine the effec­tive­ness of fil­tra­tion in sur­gi­cal masks, sim­i­lar to med­ical gowns or gloves, they are eval­u­at­ed by ASTM (Amer­i­can Soci­ety for Test­ing and Mate­ri­als). This insti­tu­tion tests a range of para­me­ters under lab­o­ra­to­ry con­di­tions and, based on the results, deter­mines which stan­dards each prod­uct meets. Their list can be found on the offi­cial web­site of the orga­ni­za­tion (click).

ASTM eval­u­ates para­me­ters such as: sol­id par­ti­cle fil­tra­tion capa­bil­i­ty, bac­te­r­i­al fil­tra­tion capa­bil­i­ty, dif­fer­en­tial pres­sure, and air per­me­abil­i­ty (breatha­bil­i­ty). Each mask mod­el under­goes an indi­vid­ual assess­ment.

Hav­ing a cer­tifi­cate of com­pli­ance with ASTM stan­dards guar­an­tees the effec­tive­ness of the pro­tec­tion of hygien­ic masks. At the same time, it clas­si­fies them as a ful­ly-fledged med­ical prod­uct.

What are surgical masks made of?

Mod­ern med­ical masks are made from mate­ri­als that not only pro­vide effec­tive pro­tec­tion against pathogens but also ensure a prop­er lev­el of com­fort while wear­ing them. In high-qual­i­ty prod­ucts from renowned man­u­fac­tur­ers like Med­line, the fol­low­ing mate­ri­als are used:

• Celu­loza Cel­lu­lose – This is a gen­tle and nat­ur­al mate­r­i­al used in both the out­er and inner lay­ers of the mask. It is the lay­er that comes into con­tact with the skin. There­fore, it is char­ac­ter­ized by its soft­ness. It does not cause abra­sions and irri­ta­tions.
• Polipropy­len typu Spund­bond – to tworzy­wo sztuczne, które stosowane jest w pod­szewkach maseczek na twarz. Pełni funkcję dodatkowej warst­wy ochron­nej, która fil­tru­je powi­etrze. Może mieć jed­nak kon­takt ze skórą, dlat­ego również jest miękkie i delikatne.
• Zgrze­wany polipropy­len Melt­blown Polypropy­lene – A syn­thet­ic mate­r­i­al that, due to ther­mal pro­cess­ing, fea­tures high fiber den­si­ty. This makes it excel­lent as a fil­ter­ing ele­ment. It is most com­mon­ly used in the out­er lay­er of the mask.
• Zgrze­wana warst­wa środ­kowa The weld­ed mid­dle lay­er – this is the actu­al fil­ter. Dif­fer­ent mate­ri­als are used for its pro­duc­tion, both nat­ur­al and syn­thet­ic, depend­ing on the pur­pose and type of the mask. It effec­tive­ly stops all dan­ger­ous pathogens, ensur­ing that the sur­gi­cal mask effec­tive­ly pro­tects both the wear­er and oth­ers in their vicin­i­ty.

Water Resistance of Surgical Masks

In oper­at­ing rooms and treat­ment offices, doc­tors and nurs­es often come into con­tact with blood and oth­er flu­ids that may con­tain virus­es and bac­te­ria. If these flu­ids enter the eyes or mouth, it can result in infec­tion with seri­ous dis­eases. For this rea­son, it is very impor­tant to pro­tect med­ical per­son­nel in such sit­u­a­tions.

This is pre­cise­ly why water-resis­tant med­ical masks were devel­oped. Most often, their out­er lay­er is made of cel­lu­lose, which is cov­ered with a hydropho­bic lay­er. As a result, no liq­uids can pen­e­trate it.

The water resis­tance of sur­gi­cal masks is deter­mined by three lev­els.

• Lev­el 1 – Resis­tance to a small amount of flu­ids
• Lev­el 2 – Resis­tance to a mod­er­ate amount of flu­ids
• Lev­el 3 – Resis­tance to a large amount of flu­ids

Hygien­ic face masks, how­ev­er, pro­tect a very lim­it­ed area: the mouth and nose. There­fore, the next step in their devel­op­ment was to enhance them with an addi­tion­al eye shield made of flex­i­ble, syn­thet­ic mate­r­i­al. To pre­vent fog­ging, this shield is often coat­ed with a spe­cial anti-fog coat­ing. Addi­tion­al­ly, sur­gi­cal masks them­selves often have a spe­cial foam that seals their con­nec­tion with the face, pre­vent­ing water vapor from the exhaled air from accu­mu­lat­ing on the shield.

Fastening of Medical Masks

To ful­fill their pro­tec­tive role, sur­gi­cal masks must fit well to the face. For this rea­son, the method of their fas­ten­ing is one of the most impor­tant aspects.

Wyróż­ni­amy trzy typy mocow­a­nia maseczek:

1. Wiązane tro­ki Tied Ties – These are strips (usu­al­ly made of cel­lu­lose) that are tied behind the head. They allow for com­fort­able adjust­ment of the mask accord­ing to the expec­ta­tions of med­ical pro­fes­sion­als.
2. Gum­ki mocow­ane za usza­mi – umożli­wia­ją łatwe i szy­bkie mocow­anie mas­ki, nawet jed­ną ręką.
3. Gum­ki mocow­ane za głową – stanow­ią rozwinię­cie poprzed­niego rozwiąza­nia. Zapew­ni­a­ją skuteczność mocow­a­nia porówny­wal­ną z klasy­czny­mi troka­mi, łącząc szy­bkość i wygodę zakłada­nia gumek.

Special masks

In addi­tion to clas­sic sur­gi­cal masks, there are also spe­cial masks avail­able. These include:

1. N95 Res­pi­ra­tor Masks. These are spe­cial masks equipped with a fab­ric fil­ter that effec­tive­ly stops sol­id par­ti­cles. They are often called “anti-smog masks” because they show high effi­cien­cy in stop­ping dust par­ti­cles.
2. Duck­bill” type masks. This name comes from their dis­tinc­tive elon­gat­ed and flat­tened shape. These masks have an addi­tion­al breath­ing cham­ber that iso­lates the nose and mouth from the mate­r­i­al, mak­ing breath­ing (espe­cial­ly for those with res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­eases) and speak­ing eas­i­er.
3. Masks with Pat­terns. These are pri­mar­i­ly used in pedi­atric wards. Col­or­ful pat­terns soft­en the appear­ance of med­ical staff, reduc­ing stress and fear in young patients.

 

Bibliography