The new variant of Covid-19, Omicron has been spreading globally since some time now. As a precautionary measure Austria has made respirators mandatory for people in public place for almost one year. Recently, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that respirators can be considered to be used as they provide greater protection, for instance, on public transport or in enclosed crowded spaces.
The Respirators
Respirators are wrongly known as “masks" as their appearance is similar to masks. They are a personal protective equipment which is developed to a specific standard and it is designed to prevent inhalation of hazardous airborne contaminants.
Different countries have their own standards to manage the quality standards of respirators. In the US, the standards are managed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), to focus three things: filter efficiency, breathing resistance and fit.
A respirator which is entirely made up of filtering material is known as filtering facepiece respirator (FFR). An FFR can be worn several times but needs to be thrown away.
As per research, FFRs lose their working ability after 20 wears – "due to stretching of straps or failure of the nose clip or edge components". The FFRs are made up of filter material a non-woven polypropylene electret.
The Masks
Talking about the masks, there are two types of masks available in the market, Surgical masks and Cloth masks. Surgical masks are mainly designed to avoid the emission of large droplets from the air. They also offer protection from body fluid splashes or sprays.