I don’t recall if I posted this here or not:
Three clothing makers built their own particle-testing lab to design a better homemade surgical mask.
www.businessinsider.com
I’m posting/reposting as an update. We have a small supply of masks in our house, and since I’m the person using them- mostly on shopping trips for groceries- they should last a little while. However, with the uncertainty surrounding the length of the current lockdown and the possibility of future waves of
Covid-19 outbreaks (or other contagions), we thought it would be a good idea to get out the sewing supplies to make our own.
We’re still considering what we need for the outer layers, but that article convinced us to track down some of these for the inner layer. Here’s why:
Inserting two of these towels into an ordinary cotton mask brought filtration up to 93% of particles as small as 0.3 microns, the smallest their machine could test. Meanwhile, the cotton masks filtered 60% of particles at best in their tests, Schempf said.
Well...easier said than done. I don’t know if everyone had the same idea, but polyester hydro knit towels are kinda hard to find right now. Maybe people are using them instead of pater towels in their kitchens, etc.
I could find
similar products with ease, even from the same manufacturers. But neither they nor the products from other companies actually listed the materials used, only breakdowns of the amount of recycled material used.
It took me vitiating an Ace, a Lowe’s and 2 Home Depots to find those ones specifically mentioned in the article.
Lowes had them in the website, but didn’t have them anywhere in store. Apparently, they’re not dealing with the vendor who distributes them anymore. And one place I found them online didn’t have locations in my state and was selling them in-store only.
For the record, even though they’re normally found in the Cleaning Supplies sections of stores, Home Depot ALSO carried them in the Paint department. The first location I hit had none, but the second had great big stacks of them in the paint department
only.