Gerard Hughes

Testing made possible by a grant from #kanro

All test results dedicated to the public domain.

For comparison, a 3M Aura 9205+ scored 83 Pascals under the same test conditions, so can get good breathability from masks other than duckbills.

Leaks under the seal of a mask can make it seem more breathable than it is. The filtration result of 97.8% for the 1804 leaves open the possibility that there may have been a small amount of face seal leak even though the simultaneous PortaCount test gave an N95 mode fit factor of 200+.

The masks were fitted tightly to a silicone mask testing headform attached to a Scince SC-MBT-2032 filter testing machine set to test at 85 lpm.

The accuracy of the testing depends on getting a good mask seal on the headform. Results should be considered approximate.

I tested breathability by measuring how much vacuum pressure in Pascals it takes to draw air through a mask at 85 liters per minute of airflow. The less vacuum pressure needed, the more breathable a mask is. So lower numbers are better.

But, not all duckbill masks are super breathable, as you can tell from the bar chart. The Giko 1440 was the least breathable at 154 Pascals. That is not terrible, but it is well above the ≤100 Pascal most breathable mask tier defined by the new Canadian CSA standard.

Why are duckbills so breathable? The shape of the mask allows for more usable surface area for air to go through than some other mask designs, allowing for easier airflow.

You can buy VFlexes in boxes of 50 for about $37. The surgical ones are harder to find and are typically sold through medical suppliers.

There are small size VFlexes to fit people with smaller faces. But they have less surface area, so they don't score quite as well for breathability.

The 1804 is an FDA approved "surgical" N95, which has increased splash resistance that can make make a mask less breathable, but not in the case of the 1804. The non-surgical version, the 9105, tests about the same and is also super breathable.

Duckbill N95s are super breathable masks that are very protective, but which one is the most breathable?

The most breathable one I tested is the 3M VFlex 1804 Surgical Duckbill N95, testing at a very low 57.8 Pascals.

Surprisingly, it is thicker than others but still more breathable.

The one thing I've run into with my wireless home internet is that it is by the same provider as my cell phone. So when there is an outage, I can't get data from my phone or my home internet.

I wish I had wireless home internet through a different provider than my cell service.

lunarbaboon - Comics - soft

Feline induced paralysis is definitely a thing. A doctor's note should not even be required.

www.lunarbaboon.com/comics/soft....

I only know enough to know I don't know enough about any of it.

And I was surprised to learn how complicated distilling alcohol can be and that methanol is more concentrated in the head and tails of the output of a still, so sloppy distillation can poison people doing home distillation of their own fermented alcohol.

I've always been confused about how bad moonshine and methanol are related.

I was surprised to read in The Poisoner's Handbook (a book on the development of forensic chemistry) that it was the US Government poisoning people deliberately during the prohibition with methanol.

I got nuthin'...but boy are those some seriously long whiskers!

You can still use them in addition to a well fitted mask, but some of the companies, such as Pure Enrichment, tend to imply the purifiers are more effective at creating a localized bubble of clean air than they actually are.

The AirFanta 4Lite is the best in class for portable air filtration designed to create localized clean air zones, but even with that there are significant limitations and you need to be really close.

youtu.be/29wInO_8Bi8

YouTube video by Gerard Hughes Do stroller air purifiers work?

There's an explainer in the YouTube Short

youtube.com/shorts/KCXeV...

I really wish small air purifiers were better at making a local clean air zone, but unfortunately the filtered output becomes almost instantly mixed with the unfiltered ambient air.

The air is only 1.6x cleaner of submicron particles 6" from the output of this purifier.

I'm sorry you are in that situation. I hope you luck out and stay well in spite of it.

Flu season is predicted to be bad this year :-(

Not a whole lot you can do for your current situation, but in future, well fitted N95s can reduce the chance of airborne infection on planes and at the airport.

Oh, that sad looking kitty face... 😿

I've got an AirFanta Wear on order and look forward to seeing what it can do, and I'll be interested in seeing different peoples' experiences.

Evaluating wearable air purifiers is tricky. Current technology prevents them from being as protective as a respirator sealed to your face, but there are use cases for them, and knowing how protective they are under what circumstances is key to deciding whether you have a use case for one.

@nukit.bsky.social has a custom testing rig to quantify the protection levels it offers so that people can make informed choices about when and where to use it.

@adamwong.bsky.social released AirFanta's wearable air purifier to market. It's meant to be used close to your nose and mouth to minimize how much unfiltered air gets entrained with the filtered output. But it is not meant as a 1:1 respirator replacement.

Such a fabulous cat.

That is unfortunate. In the US, courts have gone the other way (for now), declaring that incorporating standards into law means they can be copied for the kinds of use you describe. That just seems like a no brainer of how it should work.

It's hard to talk about the value of a standard if you can't read it and quote it. Or to follow it... :-/

I liked the draft review they posted earlier for public comment, but I wish the CSA would stop hiding public safety standards behind a paywall.

Canadians can sign up for view-only access. But a PDF of the current, older CAN/CSA-Z94.4-18 (R2023) costs $190.