CoronaVirus: What Type of Mask Should You Get to Protect Against it? (N95? P100? Respirator?)

how's it going guys I'm Theo Joe and with all this news talking about this coronavirus potentially going around I thought I would kind of divert from my usual technology videos and talk about different types of respirator masks that I've been just doing my own research on out of my own personal curiosity I'm not an expert in any way but I have done a bunch of different research on the different ratings the different types of masks and I can share my own personal opinion about which ones you might want to consider especially considering that they are selling out very quickly so you can learn with this video maybe equivalents of the n95 mask but these other ratings mean so if one sells out you can say oh well I'll just go for this other type that sort of thing also I don't want to seem alarmist I'm not trying to say oh you need to go buy a mask for anything literally I just want to make an informational video about the masks themselves if you were curious about the different types so first here's a quick summary of the different points I'll be talking about the major topics so first of all we'll go over what exactly a respirator is because spoiler alert it does not need to look like this big hunk and thing to be a respirator but you should get a respirator so we'll talk about exactly what that means then we can go over the different rating systems like n 95 P 100 what does that mean and also ones by other countries so if one rating mask sells out all over the place you can potentially search for the equivalent use by other countries and get the same thing and then we can go over the different styles of masks like what's the difference between these my opinion on which ones you should get if you like have to choose one and then some other random tips than might be useful as well so it's to start off one of the first and most important things I would say is you want to be searching and looking for respirators specifically I would be very cautious about buying anything online that's only labeled as being a breathing mask or a dust mask anything that does not have an actual respirator regulated rating might not be any better than literally holding a rag up in front of your face so you're specifically looking for something called a respirator and like I mentioned when you sear the word respirator you might be assuming it's this big style mask with the interchangeable filters that is one style but it can also be a disposable respirator that looks like this you can see on here this has the and ninety-five rating it is a respirator this is the 3m 8000 style so it can just be looking like a dust math dust mask style but it is a respirator nonetheless in regards to surgical masks I would definitely avoid those if at all possible they might be better than nothing obviously but from my understanding the biggest problem with them is they basically have no seal so they will just suck in air from the sides they're designed to protect other people from you so a patient from being spit on by the surgeon for example they're not designed to filter incoming air at all from my understanding that being said I have seen at least one study showing that if you can somehow get a perfect seal with a surgical mask it is better than nothing and can have decent protection so if you absolutely have to use a surgical mask you have no other option I would suggest literally like taping the edges you can use like micropore medical tape and literally tape the edges but again I probably wouldn't even rely on that it's not gonna be nearly as good as the actual rated respirator also if you're looking online be suspicious of certain listings for example this one looks to me like someone just literally took regular surgical masks and listed them on Amazon as n95 masks where I believe this is a scam in my opinion I do not think these are actual and 95 respirators I think someone just is taking advantage of people searching for n95 as just listing regular surgical masks as that so I think that's a scam be careful of these and go probably with only reputable companies like 3m or other companies you can search for and see if they actually are legitimately regulated masks alright so now that you know you need to get a respirator we can go over the different rating systems and the equivalents in different countries so we can start off with the United States in this case the ratings are determined by the ni o SH the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health so with this system it's going to be a letter and number code so the letter is going to be either n R or P and the number is either going to be 95 99 or 100 the letter code actually tells you how resistant the filter is too oily interestingly enough so n stands for not oil proof the R stands for resistant to oil and the P stands for oil proof then the number will tell you what percentage of airborne particles can be filtered out by that filter in a worst-case scenario testing so 95 filters that 95% of particles 99 filters out 99% and then 100 filters out almost 100% at 99.97% and after we go over the different country equivalents we can go over which of these are recommended by the CDC and which ones you might want to consider so next up we go over the European Union rating system this is AP and FFP code rating system so you'll see either p1 p2 and p3 ratings or FF p1 f f p2 and f f p3 ratings and again these have to do with what percentage of airborne particles are filtered out and from what I understand the only difference between the P and F F P rating systems just have to do with like the shape of the mask but the equivalent of the amount that each filters out are the same so p1 + FF p1 both filter out 80% so I wouldn't go with that one the p2 and FFP to filter on 94% and then the p3 and FFP 3 both feel throughout 99.95% and then the third rating system I've come across is the one used in Korea this is the KF rating system similar numbers to the European Union so KF 80 is 80% filtered out KF 94 is 94% and then k f 99 is 99% I'm not sure if it's any more than 99% exactly the figures I've seen literally just say 99% as for which rating you would want to get the CDC recommends for health care workers even even people who are like encountering sick people they recommend at least n 95 or I think they just recommend n 95 not even anything higher than that so the equivalent would be a p2 or FFP 2 in the EU system or KF 94 in the Korea system obviously it would not hurt to get a system better than that and I'm not sure if they do recommend higher than that if you can get it but that's going to be your decision anyway as for oil resistance in the u.s. system like R and P type filters I don't think those are necessary I believe those are more for like if you're using oil-based paint and spraying them or you're spraying pesticides that have oil base that sort of thing I think that's what those are really made for and I haven't seen any CDC recommendations that suggest that you need to have any oil resistance so that's one of those things where I mean if you want to get a filter that you can use for any type of project then maybe just want to go ahead and get a royal resistance filter anyway but you certainly don't need to get one based on what I've come across one important thing to remember those no matter what rating filter you get it relies on a excellent perfect seal around your face so if you have any facial hair even this much I would probably not trust I would go clean-shaven if I actually was going into area with sick people so if you have a long beard whatever definitely you're gonna have to shave it off or else it's going to allow air in and you're gonna completely negate any filtration that you have in the mask now as for different styles of respirators I have two examples here we can go over and then which one I like the best so first we can go over this disposable type this is the 3m 8000 model it is and 95 despite being looking like the most basic type of one you can imagine it basically is just a dust mask but it is rated as a + 95 respirator and it literally just goes over your mouth like this and there's two of these rubber bands and you get a seal this is not correct by the way this I'll try to get it correct I would spend more time on this but basically there's a little metal piece here that you kind of Bend to try to get a good seal against your nose but it's really not ideal I would probably not trust this because you can't really be super sure if there's not any cracks on the sides or whatever this is not easy to fit at all but again it'd be better than nothing if I was literally going into a area with sick people and this is all I had I probably would try to like tape down the edges or something like that now this other style respirator is obviously way bigger I believe this might be called a half mask style but I'm not sure it's just the kind with the interchangeable filters on it and this particular one is the 3m 6000 series respirator and with these there are a ton of different types of filters you can get on the 3m website you'll see they have a whole list of the options so there's party that filters there's gas vapor filters I would not get the gas vapor only ones I don't believe those are rated for protecting against any kind of particle including viruses so you want to either get a particulate filter or a gas and particulate filter combo which is this style this is actually one of the higher rated ones this is P 100 so this protects against pretty much everything gas and particulate and this is another size I have you can see what they look like without the filters on it they just attach on right here now as for which style is better in my opinion and if I had to go out with sick people around everywhere I would definitely go with this style for a couple of reasons first of all it's a lot easier to check the fit and seal because what you can do is literally put it on your face and then cover up the vent holes and just see if you can breathe in at all and if there's any air coming in the sides if there's not then you know it's a good seal and then you can do the same thing even when the filters are on you can cover up these sides filters and see if you could breathe in at all even with the filters on and then you know that there is no leakage whereas with these I mean it's really hard to test the seal as well as you would but this one I mean you can kind of feel maybe if you feel any air coming in the sides but then also with this metal piece this is really the only way to customize how it fits with the contour of your face I don't know if I would trust it as much but I mean obviously if you can get both types that would be the best of both worlds but if I had to rely on one I would go with one of these a big downside for these though first of all is they're a lot more expensive so you're probably going to pay at least like $20 for the just the mask itself and then the filters can cost anywhere from like 7 to $10 for each filter or like $20 for a pack if you get the really high-end kind and based on what I've seen even the most basic and 95 interchangeable filters are like seven dollars per set at least but one thing to consider of course is those might last a lot longer these you're supposed to throw them out on every use so with these interchangeable ones you can reuse them a little bit at least for several hours again that's all gonna have to be down to you another possible down side is wearing for a long time these are probably gonna be a little bit less comfortable because these filters and the whole mask is kind of heavy so this means you have to strap it around your head pretty tight so if you're wearing this for several hours on top of making it harder to breathe through a filter in general this thing is going to be on your face pretty snugly so just consider all that another thing to consider when you're looking for which rating a filter is the higher the rating probably the harder it is to breathe through so with the p100 filter it is a little bit laborious to breathe through so if you are older or you're really out of shape you might just want to stick with n95 because with this you know going out for I don't know a few minutes with this on probably is not gonna be that difficult but if you get nervous you try to breathe really hard or whatever and you have this thing on which is really restricting your breathing which it's supposed to if it's working correctly just the way if filter is it shouldn't be easy to breathe through any type of mask then that is something to consider you might not want to just go with the most powerful one and then it's hard to breathe if you have to wear this for like many hours as for the price of these disposable ones usually they are very cheap I bought a pack of these of like 30 of them back in 2016 for less than $20 and they do have a shelf life of five years so I'm just kind of barely within the shelf life but now I've seen similar packs of n95 disposables that are going for like forty dollars fifty dollars plus from third-party sellers on Amazon because all the regular ones at normal prices are completely sold out so really you might go online and unless you want to spend like a hundred dollars for a pack this big type might be literally your only option or the most economical option anyway and based on what I've seen this style still is in stock whereas the disposable kinds are pretty much all sold out everywhere unless you do want to pay a huge markup whereas these are you pretty much available still at normal prices and interestingly you might think well they're selling out cuz everyone's panicking they all want to buy a mask in case it comes to America or your country or whatever apparently that's not the case what I've seen is the reason a lot of these are selling out is because a lot of people are buying them to basically resell to send to China and sell at a huge markup or to send a family but I've seen picture there's one picture on reddit someone posted in I believe Seattle someone literally buying out the entire stock of masks at Home Depot I guess to send to China to be able to sell at a premium and make a profit which i think is absolutely disgusting but but you can't really stop them I think some stores have now implemented limits but if you do see them selling out that could be the reason and it might sell out sooner than you think now as for some other tips I should also point out you need to protect your eyes in some way because obviously you can breathe in airborne particles of the virus but you could also get some in your eye if someone spits or whatever so you should wear some type of I protect glasses I've even seen people wearing swimming goggles that's not a bad idea at all so you protect your eyes from getting anything in there another important point is in addition to your eyes and breathing in you don't want to touch anything that's contaminated and then touch your face while you're not wearing a mask so once you go to take this off definitely wash your hands before you touch anything else including your face or else you will get contaminated that way and then this can't help you so anyway I think I covered everything I wanted to talk about so let me know in the comments if you found this video helpful if you want to keep watching another related video I made a while ago that you might find interesting is talking about 13 cool tools that you might have never heard of before I'll just put that link right here if you want to click on that and check that out so thanks so much for watching guys and I'll see you in the next video

Channel: ThioJoe

Views: 1,304,737

Rating: 4.7279983 out of 5

Keywords: technology, tech, coronavirus, corona virus, china virus, wuhan virus, china flu

Id: Ihd9PS7bZV4

Length: 14min 40sec (880 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 29 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Correcting_theRecord]

Make sure you mask has a tight seal!!!! Put on your mask. Stick your head in a trash bag. Spray a perfume in the bag and make sure you dont smell anything.

Don't listen to this dumbass and do not tape the edges down jesus christ.

Also be sure to follow proper protocol when disposing of a used mask!!!

Transmission can happen through any mucous membrane. This applies to eyes, nose, mouth, and potentially penis, vagina and anus.

Make sure you have proper eye protection. Practice safe sex. Wear a properly fitted mask. Cut your hair extremely close, better yet shave it off.

These are a few tips to properly protect yourself from catching and spreading the virus.

[u/ConnorH78]

Omg thio joe I can’t believe he made it to this sub reddit hahah what a guy his tech vids years ago are class how to double your internet speed for free is a classic

[u/sweetfreedom101]

How did this joker make it on this sub reddit? This isn’t Chernobyl

[u/Bumpy_Nugget]

Did you provide instructions as to what to do when you are returning from a contaminated area, and you walk up to your front door with a plastic thing with virus particles all over it stuck on your face?

Did you tell them it is now contaminated, and there's no way to decontaminate safely? And they have to throw it away?

I'm gonna guess not.

With a mask you throw it away, what do you do with a respirator?