Posted on 03/26/2020 6:16:37 AM PDT by qwerty1234
In a central Thailand province northeast of Bangkok, the novel coronavirus creates an unlikely opportunity for extra cash: recycled face masks.
Last week, police and health officials found a second-hand goods vendor selling used face masks, which had been washed, ironed, and repackaged as new.
"Police found six workers sorting out used face masks and ironing them before folding them in boxes to look like new, unused ones," The Nation Thailand reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
If it wasn't for the walmarts and amazons and apples of the world buying everything from the lowest bidder in countries with poor health and safety records, we wouldn't be in so much of a mess, so fast.
We must ban single-use masks ... to save the earth.
Outsiders always say, ‘Why do Americans think they are better than everyone else?’
I guess we’re better than YOU because we would never DO what you do!!
Well....they did wash them. //s
The funny thing is, for virus control, I wouldn’t be surprised if washing and ironing was good enough to return them to a fairly high level of effectiveness for viral protection. Likely not for all bacteria, as the accepted temperature for autoclaving is 260 degrees F. Hopefully the ironing didn’t wreck the internal filtering through melting.
I wonder if you can reuse those blue hospital type masks if you spray them with a bleach solution and let dry.
True
That’s what I was going to say but people tend to object pretty vociferously to what I have to say lately.
Here’s an idea I had last week:
Take a HEPA air filter, from an air circulator/purifier and cut it up into mask size portions, then take some bandanas or handkerchiefs or cut up a sheet and sew these portions of HEPA Filters int a make-shift mask........................
At the very least, they should be rinsed again after the bleach, because otherwise the dried bleach is a skin irritant, not to mention the obnoxious smell. A concern would be whether the porosity would increase after bleaching, which would depend on the filter material. If the filters became too porous, they would start letting virus particles through.
The thing is, unless damaged in some way, they’re probably as effective as new. And no, the Coronavirus cooties for the prior usage won’t bite, they’re long-dead, or at least inactive (that will be figured out in about 3 years, by the ‘experts’).
Or Lysol? I read where Lysol is also a good disinfectant.
What about those paper vacuum cleaner filters?
People are way ahead of you. There are folks 3D printing plastic face masks that accept filters from cut-up HEPA vacuum filters and such.
Does this virus sort of ‘waft’ on the breeze like pollen?
believe it ot don’t but so is Listerine.
Before it was mouthwash it was disinfectant
I am not sure how all of that works. I know there are patterns and instructions for making masks online.
I’ve seen them made with charcoal as well.
I have no idea how effective any of this is.
I am surprised I haven’t seen people using NBC, full face, canister masks.
From what I read, bleaching or steaming reduces the filtering of the mask...it is no longer n-95.
If it’s a HEPA filter and you can make a mask holder for it you’re probably good to go!................
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