University of Southern Denmark
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Recent studies estimate that we use an astounding 129 billion face masks globally every month – that is 3 million a minute. Most of them are disposable face masks made from plastic microfibers.
– With increasing reports on inappropriate disposal of masks, it is urgent to recognize this potential environmental threat and prevent it from becoming the next plastic problem, researchers warn in a comment in the scientific journal Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering.
The researchers are Environmental Toxicologist Elvis Genbo Xu from University of Southern Denmark and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Zhiyong Jason Ren from Princeton University.
No guidelines for mask recycling:
Disposable masks are plastic products, that cannot be readily biodegraded but may fragment into smaller plastic particles, namely micro- and nanoplastics that widespread in ecosystems.
The enormous production of disposable masks is on a similar scale as plastic bottles, which is estimated to be 43 billion per month.
However, different from plastic bottles, (of which app. 25 pct. is recycled), there is no official guidance on mask recycle, making it more likely to be disposed of as solid waste, the researchers write.
Greater concern than plastic bags:
If not disposed of for recycling, like other plastic wastes, disposable masks can end up in the environment, freshwater systems, and oceans, where weathering can generate a large number of micro-sized particles (smaller than 5 mm) during a relatively short period (weeks) and further fragment into nanoplastics (smaller than 1 micrometer).
– A newer and bigger concern is that the masks are directly made from microsized plastic fibers (thickness of ~1 to 10 micrometers). When breaking down in the environment, the mask may release more micro-sized plastics, easier and faster than bulk plastics like plastic bags, the researchers write, continuing:
– Such impacts can be worsened by a new-generation mask, nanomasks, which directly use nano-sized plastic fibers (with a diameter smaller than 1 micrometer) and add a new source of nanoplastic pollution.
– The researchers stress that they do not know how masks contribute to the large number of plastic particles detected in the environment – simply because no data on mask degradation in nature exists.
– But we know that, like other plastic debris, disposable masks may also accumulate and release harmful chemical and biological substances, such as bisphenol A, heavy metals, as well as pathogenic micro-organisms. These may pose indirect adverse impacts on plants, animals and humans, says Elvis Genbo Xu.
What can we do?
Elvis Genbo Xu and Zhiyong Jason Ren have the following suggestions for dealing with the problem:
- Set up mask-only trash cans for collection and disposal
- consider standardization, guidelines, and strict implementation of waste management for mask wastes
- replace disposable masks with reusable face masks like cotton masks
- consider development of biodegradable disposal masks.
###
OMG yes, syringes and PPE are even worse! What were they thinking?
And those reusable condoms never did take off, did they?
That reminds me of a couple of old cartoons and jokes, Mr., but, sadly, I don’t believe I can display and tell them here.
Regards,
Bob
Sure don’t hear much about plastic straws anymore. Huh, weird. Drive-through and disposable dining has been a boon, too.
My city has outlawed plastic straws. And paper ones are disgusting.
I remember the Fauci clearly stating on 60 Minutes that masks would not help, they make a person feel good and maybe stop a droplet. That Fauci was AWFULLY sure of himself.
I wonder if that Fauci should win an Emmy like the Cuomo. They are both quite the performers.
Now, I guess, we should probably cancel the Cuomo Emmy. He is kinda like a Milli Vanilli of sorts where they conned people into thinking they were singing live and the Cuomo conned people into thinking he didn’t have a hand in killing people in nursing homes.
Meant to reply to another post (There doesn’t seem to be a way to delete a post).
Simply illustrates the power of disinformation fomented by the Propaganda Press. /
They know that Cuomo’s order, to put infected back into the old folks home is the cause of thousands of deaths, but you would have to capture and torture one to get him/her to admit to it.
But the biggest evil is that if a Republican Governor had issued the same order in say Florida or South Dakota where the link to unnecessary death was directly causal it would appear Top of Fold Front page on the New York times and reported on CNN at the top and bottom of each hour for until the next election day.
Fauxi is like a weathervane; he’s mighty sure of himself no matter which way the wind is blowing!
Watch Biden sometime. He cannot stop fiddling with his mask, then rubbing his eyes and face, etc. He’s very often grabbing it in the middle pulling it up over his nose.
I can’t watch Biden, all I see is elderly abuse.
Once he took his mask off to cough into his hand.
makes a change from fiddling with little girls hair I suppose
And it was because he caught deserved criticism for the no mask/mask debacle his handlers in the Fauci Public Relations Agency sometimes referred to, laughly, as the news media, cooked up the double mask work around.
Turns out no mask was better than one mask but nothing beats COVID like a double down on face masks which Brian ‘Brainless’ Stelter insists was Foulchi’s position all along but Orange Man Bad wouldn’t let him speak his truth or some such adolescent nonsense that only a post 1990 public school BORG dro ahh gradiate could absorb.
And of course if Covid were really a problem, those used masked should be treated as a BIOHAZARD.
The leftist HATRED of plastics disappears when that plastic is used as society control masks.
I find it quite humorous that the local Veterans outpatient clinic requires the use of a mask to enter the facility, they will even give you one. But when you exit, there are NO hazardous biowaste receptacles for proper disposal nor any trash cans even.
Can’t tell you how many used masks I’ve picked up with the rest of the litter along the right of way next to my property.
My wife and I were hiking the North Rim of the Grand Canyon last August, and saw a few discarded masks on trails that saw very little traffic. She said at the time that we ought to be taking pictures of them, and putting them on the internet in order to enrage “environmentalists’ into demanding that they be banned (neither of us can tolerate them).
It isn’t a huge problem, really, but I’m tickled to see the left pitting itself against itself.
I doubt activist urban/suburban environmentalists hike anywhere so remote. Perhaps they were at the souvenir store and discarded the masks on their way back to their RVs?
Beautiful place to camp and hike. I love the North Rim.
The pictures aren’t likely to enrage those activists. They do outrage those of us who hate seeing lazy arrogant people litter.
“Society Control Masks” – I love that phrase, it says everything.
Used syringes and human feces; the San Francisco treat! Maybe they can use the old masks for street cleanup!
Reminded me of that old Rice A Roni jingle.
Here’s an updated version. (No reflection on Rice A Roni!)
Mask and Needles,
on San Francisco Streets
Mask and Feces,
the hazards can’t be beat
Once grand, now spoiled by Demo sleaze
Send more Fed money to us please
Mask and Feces,
on San Francisco Streets
Ka- Ching!
The problem is that Loydo isn’t half as clever as he thinks he is.
I have an idea – how about, “stop wearing them . .! ” they don’t do NEAR what the sheeple think they do ( i think as most of the readers here know . . )(.
I don’t wear that at ALL when going to the store, etc. I have ONE i wear at work, because we ‘have to’ or face disciplinary action. I wash that one once a week.
Sure hope this madness ends soon . . . good to hear what Texas did (and a few other states); hoping Arizona does the same soon.
But a trillion plastic bags get a free pass, because y’know, thats the invisible hand of the market.
You really don’t do yourself any favours.
Do you just say the opposite to whatever is in the article? These masks are a problem. I said that right from the beginning that it would be.
Masks save lives 😉
Not according to the DaneMask study…
Yes, masks are as effective as those fluorescent vests that *everyone* is required to wear around any activity.
I believe those safety vests can save you from a meteor strike.
Actually, from what I’ve seen in life, hi-viz yellow and orange do save lives.
Colo[u]rs that don’t exist in nature are inherently easy for the human eye (read brain) to spot.
I’m thinking more about the talking heads on tv reporting about the local library extension opening, and the like.
Or one person pushing a lawn mower.
True, that said they don’t idiots from stepping in front of moving vehicles. I have seen guys do that on no few work sites, all that safety gear makes them stop THINKING about their safety.
Masks control society!
YAWN, you really are pathetic little petal, aren’t you loy-dodo. !
No , they don’t get a free pass.
Western countries do everything they can to minimise them as environmental rubbish
Pity you aren’t so concerned about the ENVIRONMENTAL GARBAGE called wind turbines.
Loy ==> Plastic Bags don’t get a pass — they have been banned in many states and nations. Remember the “Paper or Plastic?” days? Now, in my area (New York State) we have to pay a nickle for a paper bag — plastic is no longer on offer
I remember way back when they pushed plastic bags to “save the trees”…
Me too!
I’m just pointing out the utter hypocrisy of WUWT for criticising face masks because they’re made of plastic. A search of this site turns up 1242 hits for plastic bags – yeah, normally we absolutely adore plastic here. Not one I looked at was critical of plastic waste, they were invariably about how opposition to plastic was all exaggeration and “virtue signalling” and how stupid and anti-capitalist greens are.
Now when it suits…plastic waste is a “ticking time bomb” and masks are “greater concern than plastic bags”.
Loydo,
Who wrote this article?
Who chose it to be re-published here? Why were all the pro-plastic posts chosen? Why the sudden 180° turn around on plastic waste?
Are you so stupid as to believe that the only articles that get published here are ones that everyone agrees with?
Flak with narc, that one must have landed quite close.
Geez are you dumb
Nope.. like all you EMPTY waste-of space comments, ..
it was WAY OFF TARGET.
All you did was trip over your own feet !!
Are you saying that you can’t understand the concept of simply sharing something that you may or may not agree with for the purpose of informing and/or sparking discussion?
I should have known better than to bother engaging you.
Ah come off it. Do you think these articles are chosen at random? Do you think the editor “may or may not agree” with thosuands of consecutive posts about
Search> plastic
Result #3 is a lovely ‘splainin’ example:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/12/17/an-ocean-of-plastic/
Now it’s “Plastic Bags don’t get a pass”, not for the want of WUWT trying.
Thousands of posts full of a near uniform, monolithic opinion: plastic is nothing but a good thing, plastic pollution is an overblown alarmist/greenist/Democrat myth, all talk of reducing its use is subversive and frankly anti-American. What, you think tossing heads 3000 times in a row is just random coincidence?
Watts has an agenda that fine, but don’t be naive about it nor get your nose out of joint on his behalf when his hypocrisy exposed. If you spend a decade trying to ‘splain something away, then next thing your using it as a weapon to attack something you don’t like… then you’ve just won the gold medal for it.
There is often less nuance to my thinking than people think.
I found it humorous.
You really are TOTALLY CLUELESS about everything, aren’t you loy-dodo.
You make up your feeble little mind about what you think people are saying…
. all the while reflecting ONLY your own blatant and juvenile leftist hypocrisy, ignorance and idiocy.
You leftard liars are the ones trashing the entire world, hypocrisy is all yours.
Loydo ==> Hmmm..I wrote that piece “An Ocean of Plastic”. If you read it, in its entirety, you know what I think about plastics in the wild and none of my opinions look anything like “plastic is nothing but a good thing, plastic pollution is an overblown alarmist/greenist/Democrat myth, all talk of reducing its use is subversive and frankly anti-American.”
You really haven’t got a CLUE what’s going on , have the loy-dodo. !!
When the truth doesn’t work, Loydo once again breaks out the lies.
In this case, not favoring a ban on plastic bags is taken as not caring about plastic waste.
I see that Loydo is still trying to pretend that this article was posted because everyone here agrees with it.
Looking through the posts, I can’t find any declaring that throughing masks on the ground is a good thing, even though Loydo is convinced that is how we all think.
Loydo is not a deep thinker, but that won’t stop him from believing he is.
You missed the point, didn’t you?
The hypocrisy is on the left.
They harp about plastic straws and plastic bags yet masks made with plastic are OK.
Kinda’ like Kerry have any say in “Going Green” policies yet he has a private jet. Greta sailing across the Atlantic rather than flying yet that caused multiple of flights.
Hypocrisy can happen anywhere, at the moment it’s right here.
Yep, YOU are the ultimate in leftist HYPOCRISY, loy-dodo.
It OOZES from your every comment.
Yep, each time you post hypocrisy abounds, you can’t help it, hypocrisy is all you have.
YAWN !
another DUMB, EMPTY comment , pertaining to nothing
the Loy-dodo way !
The leftist scum that you represent are the epitome of hypocritical “virtue seeking” ..
… and you know it
No, you are simply spewing your usual leftist stupidity, and since it is you leftist morons who are trashing the world you are the ones we should be putting in prison. Since you refuse to learn or to behave as a human being life sentences would be appropriate.
Loydo ==> WUWT isn’t doing anything about masks — no less “criticising face masks because they’re made of plastic”. The item under which these comments are being made is a “news aggregation” piece. It is a summarized item, as noted, From EurekAlert! It is not original content here.
In general, items that appear at WUWT are NOT the opinions or the positions of the owner of this site, Anthony Watts. There is no other editorial board here — so only items written by Anthony Watts himself express his opinions — and only his opinions can be considered the official opinions or position-statements of WUWT.
Everything else here — all the essays — all the re-posting of news and posts from other sites — all the writing of those recognized as contributing authors — are ALL — EVERY ONE — independent opinions of their individual authors and not those of the management/owner/editors of WUWT and are not necessarily endorsed by Anthony.
Everything posted here, regardless of author (except those from Anthony Watts), is posted here because they are judged interesting enough to share by the day-to-day editors who volunteer their time and effort to keep the site running. Appearance here is not an endorsement. Many times, re-posting something here from a news site is done because the day-to-day editors here disagree with the item.
(This applies to everything I write here as well. When I write an “essay” or “news brief”, it is generally a journalistic effort at explaining something. When I write “Opinion by Kip Hansen” — that means I am interpreting information and giving my personal opinion about it. Journalism is supposed to be separate from Opinion section writing — though one would no longer know it if reading the major newspapers today, whose reporters write nothing but opinion section material and then present it as “journalism” on the pages previously reserved for news.)
loydoo knows all that, it does not care. If it did it would not be using anything derived from, transported by or facilitated by any form of petroleum. And yet it does, and spews leftist lies at every opportunity. Heaping derision and scorn on it is the best course of action. griffie, too.
Where I live I don’t see plastic bags littering the streets. They get broken down by sunlight. I do however see the street strewn with discarded face masks, they don’t get broken down by sunlight.
Their conclusions:
To #1, Where there are other trash cans Where there are no cans. Who will empty them? Government make work program.
To #2, There are already anti littering laws on the books everywhere I know of. Lets make another law to do the same thing, like the US dems and their continuous need for more gun control laws while they don’t enforce the current laws. It gives libs “prosecutorial discretion” to enforce only the laws that punish their political enemies and ignore the other laws that would punish their voters.
To #3, Why any masks at all??. The “science” only shows marginal differences in case rates with and without masks, but, like the disastrous “Harvard Nurses Study”, no analysis of if the extreme mandates just reduced the number of people going out and about because of the nuisance of it all. I know when I traveled to 20 states across the us this summer, where the mandates were ridiculous, we just didn’t go out of the trailer, just read, went on walks or hikes, or when near relatives visited. No dining out, etc. just shopping and cooking at home. When I found a place where people were ignoring the mandate, we went in and sat down to eat. (Small towns in Penn. and Indiana.) Of course the Loydo type sudo-scientistS, like our friends the climate scientists, would not put in parameters that would eliminate the “increase due to no mask mandate” because of difference in other behaviors. They had to show “some” detrimental impact for not being sciency like Killer Cuomo.
To #4, Everyone here knows that biodegradable materials exist for these types of materials but would just be more expensive, or maybe not, but as for 3# above, no need for the masks anyway so no need to create new, almost guaranteed to be more expensive, mask manufacturing systems.
Since these 4 items are all typical of what leftists want of every possible system or situation:
Increase taxes
Add government workers
Add laws
Require the unnecessary
Allow “THEIR DISCRETION” on enforcement
More monies to lawyers (#1 in campaign donations to leftists) throughout the process
Perhaps you could respond to this personally and directly to each item, Loydo, to tell me where I am wrong.
Drake.
How about narrowing it down for me Drake, you’ve written a manifesto. What particular point do you think you have right and I have wrong?
I have all of it right.
I was just defining progressive methodology which you know well.
You refused to dispute any of what I said.
I think there is a reason for that, you know what I said is true..
Poor loy-dodo, you are PROVABLE WRONG on basically everything you post
Its hilarious to watch you spew your leftist/marxist ANTI-knowledge in every post you make.
That is easy! Everything you spew is wrong.
I see that Loydo isn’t smart enough to figure out that the people who put out this article are the same ones who whine about plastic bags.
He assumes that because it’s posted here, that everyone here agrees with it.
But then Loydo has never given any evidence of having measurable brain functions.
Why are you always deriding the industrious who provide the comfortable life that you enjoy? Why don’t you place the fault were it belongs on the lazy scum buckets who trash their environment?
I have a solution for you Loydo. Since we have surveillance cameras everywhere now, and you Progressive Leftists are okay with a state controlled populace, Lets identify and apprehend every offender who drops trash of any kind on the street. Then penalize them 20 hours a week, for 4 weeks, community service as street cleaners, for every littering occurrence, double the penalty for plastic bags.
We wouldn’t even need to use the evil police force. Just a bunch of Social Science “gradiates” with meaningless degrees that could be employed to knock on your door with video evidence of your transgression on their iPad. They would hand you a jumpsuit, extendable grabber and cloth garbage bag to sling over your shoulder. All the tools you need with a work schedule to assign you place, day and time for clean up duty. Its off to work you go. Failure to show means tax penalty’s and benefits suspension.
Loydo, as a side benefit it would substantially cut down on all the left wing rioting. You see the worse offenders are the people that organize their civil chaos in their campus quad safe zones and then march out into the city to wreak havoc and trash the urban dwellers environments. Under my system, they would be too busy cleaning the streets, wearing fluorescent jump suits and picking up their own trash. Along side them would be the littering loiterers of the press who cover them. I have observed them waiting for their social justice events to break loose. There is no greater group of trash makers in the world. using the curb as their universal garbage cans.
Just like a left wing emotive not-thinker, you want to ignore the criminal and blame the tool maker. You just don’t understand problem solving loydo. All you want to do is assign blame to the innocent and gather loud voices of complaint so Congress, which legislates to the lowest common denominator, passes laws which bludgeon the innocent and get ignored by the lawless. Maryland just added a bag fee. That won’t eliminate plastic bags as litter. But it will, not surprisingly to those paying attention, provide the politicians with more money to spend. Politicians look at all your problems as potential revenue streams for them. They don’t solve problems because they would rather make money. The worse the problem becomes the more money they can lawfully take from you. Stop feeling – start thinking child.
Gee sorry Bill, especially for Congress and all the litter and and for all that wreaking. Wait, I don’t even live in the US…but sorry anyway.
When Loydo gets himself stuck in a rut, he simply can’t get out on his own.
Truly pathetic, but it’s what he has become famous for.
Loy-dodo is like a manic little rabid rabbit, frantically digging to escape its own self-hatred and despite……… but always taking them with him.
Yet here you are LITTERING this blog with GARBAGE.
You poor hypocritical dodo.
You do realise the places with horrendous litter both plastic and human, are nearly all fully LEFTIST SOCIALISTS Democrat run cities, don’t you. !!
Loydo you should get out more. litter is a universal problem with universal culprits.
The worse litterers are the people calling for their Governments to pass rules to penalize everybody because they don’t intend to stop littering. So the liberal/Progressive/Socialist joins the protest crying: “mea culpa. Charge me more for my every purchase.” Never questioning the reality that it doesn’t stop litter no matter where it is implemented around the globe.
If that were the case loydo would spend all its time picking up its trash.
I always get brown paper grocery bags.
They stilll give me pills in little (hard) plastic bottles. That’s a hard one to fix.
I wear a hand-made cotton mask — same one for months.
There are so many critters in that thing, they are killing each other.
Problem solved.
The Loydo:
It’s the Greenies that oppose fossil-fuel bags AND tend to be the ones promoting masks made with fossil-fuels. (Even the disposable paper masks are made from trees which capture the dreaded CO2 molecule.)
It’s the Greenies giving disposable fossil-fuel masks and tree destroying masks a “free pass”.
PS I replaced the disposable mask I keep in my car for quick runs into and out stores. The new one smells like sawdust.
PPS We can’t recycle paper/cardboard food containers. What do with “Covid containers” such as mask?
PPPS My wife went to the Doctor for a follow up on a procedure. Clothe mask were not allowed. They had to be the disposable kind.
Interesting about a cloth mask being verboten.
I wear mine (see my comment at 1:29) to my doctor’s office and into our local hospital. I wore a brightly colored bucket hat today, and on leaving, got a positive comment from the receptionist. They seem only to notice “mask or no mask”, not what it is. We are “reality” types here in our rural enviroment.
I have a great idea. How about prohibiting masks? (Is /sarc really necessary?)
Switzerland legislature is doing that as we speak.
The King’s new clothes were made from nanoplastic.
I’ve had the same mask for a year now.
At least I think it’s the same mask.
It’s a light blue colored one, and I always seem to find it very easily, even though I didn’t remember putting it down there.
Joe Biden.
Likely we are paying $150,000 a year for Joe’s mask carrier — making sure it is on right side up and not inside out.
“What can you do” – stop wearing the pointless face nappies.
The std masks (tested to stop particles of 3micron) may make a person feel good;
but they wont stop a virus (corona-virus = 0.125micron).
The alternative snot soaked cloth nosebags prevent you expelling all the junk from your lungs so expect a large rise in lung infections.
A clear face shield prevents people spraying aerosols directly into each others faces, reducing possible high viral load ingestion; they are easy to clean & allow you to breath unrestricted.
Not only lung infections.
Dentists are now seeing a new sort for dental problems called “mask-mouth”.
The trapped bacteria have a really bad affect on gums and teeth.
Probably explains the UK mortality statistics on flu and pneumonia deaths last year. They appear to have always been lumped together in one category, as pneumonia is normally a secondary infection in someone already weakened by flu, this normally makes sense. While flu appears to have disappeared during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, the deaths in the flu and pneumonia category haven’t. I would suggest that those (bacterial) pneumonia deaths are largely attributable to mask-wearing. I suspect other western countries will have similar statistics.
People just do not understand the difference between 3 microns and 0.125 microns (In fact less than that) and how masks simply do not stop virus particles.
Which is why I use my Elmo bandana, that and everyone loves Elmo so I get lots of smiles and kids going “Theres Elmo”. Brightens my day!
I hate to be a contrarian (not really) but:
Respiratory particles can be of various sizes, some of which a mask can block.
And when we are talking masks, there are good masks and not-so-good masks. The masks you see that have a single loop over each ear are not-so-good masks.
Those seem to be what most people are wearing. Testing of masks should not be done with not-so-good masks.
Better masks will give better results. The N95 mask should be what people use. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of N95 masks, so most people wear the not-so-good masks out of necessity.
Ford Motor Company is currently producing N95 masks with a clear plastic front so your face can be seen. It will probably be a long time before these masks are available to the general public. Some industrious people could probably make a good business out of manufacturing N95 masks right now. The demand must be enormous.
Biden wears two not-so-good masks. I saw a report yesterday that said one mask gave 85 percent protection (N95) while adding a second mask improved that number to 89.
And the normal flu and cold viruses seem to have disappeared this year, presumably because lots of people are wearing masks.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7579175/
“Assuming that a respiratory particle can be completely (100%) constituted of SARS-CoV-2, the theoretical minimum size of particles containing SARS-CoV-2 is calculated to be 0.09 μm corresponding to the size of a single virion.
If 1% of the respiratory fluid particle is occupied by SARS-CoV-2, the minimum size of the respiratory particle that can contain SARS-CoV-2 is approximately 0.4 μm. Figure 1 and Figure 2 show the calculated particle sizes via a schematic diagram and graph, respectively.
If 0.01% of the respiratory fluid particle is occupied by SARS-CoV-2, the minimum size of the respiratory particle that can contain SARS-CoV-2 is approximately 1.9 μm. If only 10−4% of the respiratory fluid particle is occupied by SARS-CoV-2, the minimum size of the respiratory particle that can contain SARS-CoV-2 is approximately 9 μm. Furthermore, if only 10−6% of the respiratory fluid particle is occupied by SARS-CoV-2, the minimum size of the respiratory particle that can contain SARS-CoV-2 is approximately 42 μm. Previous studies have demonstrated that these minimum sizes could, in practice, be the sizes of actual respiratory particles [11,12,13]. In Figure 1 and Figure 2, the ratio of viruses in the released respiratory fluid particles to the total particle volume is assumed to range from 100% to 10−6%.”
end excerpt
I don’t support forcing people to wear a mask. I support educating people so they can make the best decisions for themselves personally.
“Those seem to be what most people are wearing. Testing of masks should not be done with not-so-good masks.”
That doesn’t make sense to me. Wouldn’t you want to test with what people are actually using?
What I meant was determining the effectiveness of a face mask should be based on testing the N95 mask. That’s the Gold Standard.
I think most tests of masks do use the N95, but there are claims out there that wearing masks doesn’t do any good and then they cite some statistic taken from the general population as evidence, when the general population are not wearing N95 masks. If everyone were wearing N95 masks, the statistics might be different.
That’s my complaint: They are conflating N95 mask outcomes with non-N95 mask outcomes in some cases.
Actually the current gold standard is 3M’s FR-7800, followed by a couple of models out of Israel and Czechoslovakia. If the threat is as real and deadly as Fauxi&Friends keep screeching it is don’t screw around.
But if most people are not using N95s, what practical use is that information?
I read an article on masks last year. Indeed the pores in the n95 masks are larger than the virus, but…the virus travels in a droplet of moisture that combined the two will not allow the virus to travel through the mask’s pores.
It is now on the mask, transmissible by touch, also the virusi can be drawn through by the physical actions of breathing, being so small and resilient if you believe Dr Fauxi. Flu strains, people really should just do a search on (any browser other than googli) and do some factual reading about how they have been lied to for a year. Then they should get pissed the f***k off.
Ah yes the magical plastic face shield. It can stop a virus from passing around it too. I just laugh every time I see someone out in public wearing one.
I see these things blowing around on the streets and beach, disgusting! And Portugal is extremely clean with people paid to remove trash from the streets daily. As hard as they work, they can’t keep up with the plague of masks.
Now coral reefs are covered in face masks.
https://youtu.be/OCZMeLpl04Y
Should be biodegradable – bit of a no-brainer.
Phil,
Thank you for posting this. I would never see this in the US.
Drake
Masks are the Covid equivelent of the bullets and bandages of war. Whoever supplies them wants the war to never end.
Many of them are made in China….
Funny how the ChiComs were trying to corner the market on PPE even as the virus was just starting to spread in Europe and the US! I’m sure it’s just a coincidence!
Wouldn’t they be more like the US torpedoes early in WWII that didn’t actually work except by accident?
Scary but true. The failure of the “procurement” people in the Navy office in DC to address that issue cost thousands of lives in the Pacific theater including crews of subs sunk by ships they could have sunk it their torpedoes had worked. I can’t remember the specifics, but I do recall that one thing many submariners did was to replace the “firing” pin with stringer material so it would not just bend on impact. The number of other things wrong, would not run at set depth, proximity fuse would not go off while passing under a ship, etc. A terrible piece of armament. There are stories, in naval captain’s logs of 3 torpedoes being heard hitting a ship and none exploding. People should have been tried for treason over that weapon.
The failure of providing an effective torpedo could actually have lengthened the war effort in the Pacific although I don’t think the war would have ended until “the bombs” were delivered on the Japanese mainland either way.
You are probably right, Drake!
Just spent the last few days studying ‘Yojimbo’ and ‘Sanjuro;’ two of Kurosawa’s great samurai films. I have great love and admiration for Japanese art and culture; so the use of the A-bombs has always sickened me! They probably saved millions of Japanese and American lives, but I pray that such horrors never occur again!
On the bright side, ‘Seven Samurai’ and ‘Hidden Fortress’ arrive next week; so I get to spend a few more days watching great films!
Check out Silent Victory by Clay Blair, He goes into great detail
about the torpedo failures, it’s a fasinating read!
Rick,
I will, thank you for the reference.
Drake
You have to remember that after WW1, the US didn’t want to get involved in another war. The military budget was slashed, including research funding.
There wasn’t much money for firing “live” torpedoes being developed.
In other words, in the early days of the war the torpedoes failed on a “perfect shot” because they were never properly tested before the war.
There are indeed many varieties of Covid19 lovers.
In the UK then then prime-minister David Cameron ordered medical studies to be undertaken to “test the efficacy of sugical masks in covid related transmission” after there was an outbreak of bird flu and then swine flu in 2009 and 2007. Imperial college responded to both of these telloing the government that each one would mutate and kill thousands which created the government panic then. Every paper punlished relating to these studies were very clear that these masks did nothing at all including one paper that said that they were no use in theatres except for people in contact with the patient. These papers are still available to be read if anyone want to search. They don’t work and never did for preventing transmission of influenza type illness
What I find interesting is how all the studies on masks prior to 2020 had that same conclusion, but suddenly in 2020 almost all “studies” (all either in-lab studies or computer simulations/models) came to different conclusions. Virus behavior suddenly changed in 2020?
President-for-life Xi ordered the virus to change it’s behavior for the good of China! They’ve now taken about ten years off the time required to surpass the US and become the world hegemon!
With Zhao Bai Den in the White House, China may already be ruling the world! Doesn’t that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside!
Funny, my Elmo bandana is not polluting the world, and it is just as effective against virusi as all the non-medical device masks that are now polluting the world.
Thanks, that gave me a little tickle.
Rule number one of Environment Club. We don’t actually care about the environment. We only use environmental issues as a cudgel to bash up the capitalists and libertarians who get in the way of our authoritarian socialist agenda.
Windfarms further our cause of an energy-rationed economy, so we don’t care how many damn endangered raptors they take out. The ends justify the means.
Likewise, masks depersonalise and encourage fear of, and compliance with, authority. Therefore squillions of them can end up in the sea. You won’t hear us complaining.
What!? You don’t want to take advantage of ~1% decrease in infections that the CDC found in their latest study!? Of course that was with an error rate of about 5%; so who knows!
Numerous experts have stated from the beginning of the dempanic that widespread mask wearing would have little to no effect on the spread of the virus; but many politicians didn’t wanted to let a crisis go to waste, so they heartily endorsed the ChiCom policies of masks and lockdowns! The WHO guidelines from the fall of 2019 recommended masks for health care workers, the infected and the susceptible. Only in the fever dream panic of Western media was mask wearing seen as some kind of panacea, and they sold the fear porn like the obedient propaganda shills they have become!
Now they’re concentrating on pushing the vaccines, even though there have been effective treatments since the very beginning; and the vaccines were rushed to market without normal testing procedures. If one didn’t know better he might reach the conclusion that the media are working for the drug companies!
At least we know that they would never allow thousands of people to needlessly die by suppressing treatments and covering up dangerous political policies! Yeah, right!
I don’t get what are you talking about. Trash can contents goes to landfills. And masks are only a tiny fraction of the trash can contents. As soon as you use the regular trash can all rivers and oceans should be perfectly safe. Water basins could be only endangered if you throw your mask straight on the street or even worse – if you throw it in the nature.
Open your eyes, pay attention, stop being a leftist dupe.
The word schadenfreude suddenly comes to mind.
Regarding masks- before Covid, I would buy a box of 20 N95 masks at Home Depot for just over $20. I just can’t understand why it is that N95 masks are virtually impossible to buy after a year of Covid. yes, you can get K-N95 masks made in China, but how good are they? I should think it should have been easy to rapidly expand production of N95 masks after trillions have been spent on the Covid problem.
I’ve still got most of a box of the good quality N95 masks that are left over from a home remodel and painting job I did a few years ago. I would never waste them by wearing them in a store; for that I use the lightweight, stretchy cloth neck gaiters I bought at the very start of this fiasco!
I leave them on the seat of my truck to be sterilized by the sun, and I got the assorted camo pack so they match my differing outfits! What else do I need?
Oh, by the way; the N95 masks are available; I’m only asking $20 a pop, the line forms to the left!
So much waste and they don’t even work beyond the psychological.
But they do facilitate a test of public obedience. Still, on the upside, we did ban plastic straws.
I heard that San Francisco was closing down all their Planned Parenthood clinics! I guess they caught them still using plastic straws!
Apparently the road to hell has been resurfaced with a growing layer of face masks! Just like most other libtard good intentions, the costs outweigh the benefits!
For those of you who want to accuse me of wanting to kill people, I would refer to the growing number of studies showing that lockdowns kill FAR MORE than they save! Masks are a nonfactor unless you use a high quality one and wear it properly! In sane times that meant healthcare workers and the infected trying to stop the spread TO other people; now we do everything bassackwards!
They should be incinerated with the rest of the trash, and if that drives a power-plant, so much the better.
In medieval times, people had various ways of warding off evil spirits. Christianity co-opted pagan ideation about evil, with the symbol of the cross typically used. The wearer of such a symbol could then be protected, the power being such that a physical manifestation of evil, such as a vampire, would actually be destroyed by it. Today, masks are being used in much the same way, but are given even more power via mandates, and the use of faux science. Even once masks are no longer deemed “necessary”, they will likely still be recommended, and the mask Believers will happily oblige. They will attempt to shame those who don’t wear them, and “mask wars” will once again erupt.
hahahahaha.
I have a solution. Do not wear masks outside a health care environment. They do not work.
At least plastic bags and plastic drinking straws have a useful (albeit sometimes brief) purpose. These napkins with ear-loops are as effective as a rabbit’s foot or a four-leaf clover.
Or, we could just stop wearing them worldwide unless we are physicians, nurses, medically fragile, etc.
There is no need for them for the general populace.
The need is to placate the Karens and see how many people will go along with the most insane government dictats before the Great Reset.
And what has been learned?
Not only will the masses “go along”, they’ll scream for even more.
Good Grief! Kindergarten Rules: “Trash goes in the trash can.” “Clean Up after yourself.” “Do Not Litter.”
Where is this generations “Ladybird Johnson”?
The primary “plastic problem” is a “people problem”: they just don’t put their trash in the trash can, individually and societally.
Oh dear, my fantastical solutions are spawning hypothetical consequences. Historians will note that when the endless fears of the precautionary principle were given free rein, the end of civilisation became inevitable.
As usual, if it’s a product that Progressives approve of then they just don’t care. It’s only when a product or service somehow offends Progressive sensibilities and it’s something that Progressives can easily live without that these concerns become a problem.
Not strictly true. Let the Regressives* try to live without fossil fuels, which they have been trying to get banned. Some, the useful idiots, think it can be done, though it’s supposed to be other people who give up their cars and reliable electricity. Some Regressives are just too important to give up their cars**.
*There is nothing progressive about Progressive policies. It’s all regressive. They are Regressives.
**And planes. I’m looking at you, Kerry and Gore.
Progressivism is such a great religion! It must feel awesome never having to say you’re sorry or admit you’re wrong! We should ask Loydo and the griffter how it feels, since we can rarely get any facts out of them!
Stop using them.
Masks can stop bacteria but not viruses. They are useless against covid19.
-The average diameter of a single bacterium is 4.25 micrometers. A micrometer is one thousandth of a meter. A meter is 39.37 inches. The average diameter of a coronavirus is 90 nanometers. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter.
–There are roughly two orders of magnitude (100 times) difference between a single bacterium and a virus. We can see a single bacterium with a very powerful optical microscope. We cannot see viruses with optical microscopes. We need very powerful electron microscopes to resolve a virus.
-Most doctors are very good in medicine but have very little understanding of physics. The same holds true for virologists and other researchers in the field.
https://principia-scientific.com/are-facemasks-effective-against-viruses-or-not/
The best thing you can do to stop getting the flu is to regularly wash your hands, and try to avoid touching your face.
https://principia-scientific.com/the-science-exposing-the-myths-about-medical-masks/
https://principia-scientific.com/masks-the-science-myths/
your micrometers are bigger than mine
Mine are of no concern as they end up getting oxidized in a very hot fire.
Consider them as biofuels and the problem is solved.
Recycling bins in parking lots. They are all over the ground in parking lots.
Don’t know where you are, here in America parking lots/structures have trash cans of various types located handily and in multiple locations. Idiots still throw stuff on the ground.
A lot of hype surrounding their theory.
No testing.
No physical analysis
Yet, the researchers feel free to include every hysterical alarmist panic nuance.
This paper belongs in trash receptacles well before the masks.
Stop wearing the stupid, ineffective, and disgusting face diapers, no more pollution. Easy!
BS. There’s no credible evidence that micro/nano plastics or bisphenol A, have any significant danger to anything.
Calm down eck, Charles was pulling your leg, bisphenol A is his favourite one.
Poor loy-dodo, yet another pointless evidence free EMPTY comment..
Pertaining to NOTHING.
Which group of rodents were you in loy-dodo ?
the majority of masks and they way they’re being worn/used by the general population is useless in preventing the spread of covid at any meaningful level… since they’re useless, stop mandating them… you have now just reduced the impact regarding the disposal of masks
To goracle. How many cloth and plastic fibres have been inhaled during this pandemic. I find it worrying in the future.
My ENT specialist has the exact same worry. He has treated people with breathing problems from wearing such masks for work, now people are wearing them for much longer periods of time.