Mask safety matters
That mask you are wearing to keep you safe from coronavirus may actually be making you sick.
Say what?
Disposable face masks contain potential carcinogens, according to Health Canada.
As reported by CBC News, blue and gray masks have graphene in them. Graphene is a lung irritant. It may cause “early pulmonary toxicity,” health officials say.
Some daycare educators had been suspicious of these grey and blue masks for a while,” Radio-Canada reports, “because they felt like they were swallowing cat hair while wearing them…”
Canadian health officials issued a warning about another disposable mask, the MC9501, after the government distributed 31.1 million masks to 15,000 daycares. They called MC9501 mask safety into question because the mask did not effectively filter pathogens.
Questioning mask safety
When it comes to mask safety, there are two questions:
- Can the mask be worn without causing harm to your lungs or disrupting your oxygen intact?
- Is the mask you’re wearing helping reduce your risk of exposure to Covid-19?
Unfortunately, nearly all disposable face masks have safety issues.
According to a study by researchers in China, “disposable” masks (except N95s) contain plastic fibers. And when you wear them for a long time and continually inhale plastic you risk harming your lungs.
A second mask safety study, published in October of 2020, found another cause for concern. Face masks aren’t just harming humans, they’re also polluting the planet.
The increase in production and consumption of face mask across the world has given rise to a new environmental challenge,” these scientists explain, “adding to the vast plastic and plastic particle waste in the environment. Some of these materials are getting into waterways from where they reach the freshwater and marine environment adding to the presence of plastics in the aquatic medium. For instance, OceansAsia, an organization committed to advocacy and research on marine pollution, reported in February 2020, the presence of face masks of different types and colours in an ocean in Hong Kong.”
So mask safety is not just a problem for humans. Littered face masks also have the potential to harm the environment, contaminate the oceans, and even threaten our food supply.
Published in the international multi-disciplinary peer-reviewed journal Science of the Total Environment, this mask safety research concludes on a worrisome note.
“Who knows?” the scientists ask, “Plastic pollution may be the next world pandemic.”
Some of us worry it already is.
Related posts:
Wearing a Mask Can Harm Your Health
Healthy People Wearing Masks: Should They or Shouldn’t They?
CDC Mask-Wearing Mandate: What Does the Science Say?
Published: April 8, 2021
Last update: February 24, 2022
Shari says
You commented on Rachel Madcow Show. Hillarious! And how dare you ask a question. Unreal comments. I’m in some kind of jail on there. So yay! I can tell you I saw it anyway right here.
Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D. says
Thanks for stopping by, Shari. The censorship on FB and Twitter (and Google and even Medium) is unreal right now. Please also sign up for my email list. I send messages once a week on Thursday mornings (if that): https://censorshipfreezone.net p.s. There’s lots to read around here so come back often!
Farnesene McLinalool says
Jim Meehand, MD has a fantastic piece with a bajillion sources talking about the harms and dangers of masks as well as how utterly ineffective they are.
And, look into masks with copper nanoparticles in them (supposed to be for antimicrobial effect). The particles are nasty to inhale. And hypoxia from masks is real, as are the blood clotting effect of said hypoxia. Then throw in a virus that’s known to cause blood clots, with an injection that causes blood clots and heart inflammation.
These “treatments” or “interventions” are what’s killing us.
Healthy hosts cannot “get” a “virus” and so they need us constantly in some level of sickness or another.
Erica says
Thank you so much for this extremely helpful article. I live in the oh so free state of New York (extremely heavy sarcasm along with an infinity of eyerolls) and our insane governor has just extended the mask mandate for schools until April 22 for no apparent reason. by the way last week she lifted the mandate for the rest of the state but not for schools. Go figure – gotta love the science of greed. Anyway… after reading this article, I purchased reusable mesh facemasks for my middle school son who has been wearing disposable ones. I had already purchased masks like this for my second grade daughter. I am 100% against kids wearing masks in general, but if we have to send them to school in them they may as well be made of fabric full of holes!