Having been a cabinetmaker before retiring, I have one of these and a jillion filters out in the shop.
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Funny that you’d post that as I just sent off pictures to a bunch of health care workers in my family of something similar when they were telling me about the N95 mask shortages. I told them that they should see what I have wear when I go on to plenty of different kinds of industry jobsites and am exposed to who knows what. Told them to get their butts down an industrial supply house and get properly fit tested with something that is in the 99.97% effective range or above.
Basically, the question I asked them was this..... On what grounds do they believe that an N95 mask is adequate? Let me be specific…. The 95 number means that it is 95% effective. On what grounds is such a low value acceptable? In other words, if a doctor sees 100 infected patients, wearing a 95 grade mask, that’s no better than seeing 95 patients with a guaranteed 100% total protection and 5 patients with no mask at all. It’s somewhat shocking that such a low grade filter is supposed to be acceptable… not only will the paper filter allow all kinds of small things pass through, they are not sealed around the face and thus there is a direct short circuit that bypasses the filter part of the mask. Is it any wonder that a vast number of health care workers get infected themselves? The stats from Italy are abysmal.
https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/personal-protective-equipment-infection-control/n95-respirators-and-surgical-masks-face-masks I found this piece that explains the problem…..and this article from the FDA makes reference to having received this information from the CDC…. Here’s the quote from this piece to make the point.....
>>>>If worn properly, a surgical mask is meant to help block large-particle droplets, splashes, sprays, or splatter that may contain germs (viruses and bacteria), keeping it from reaching your mouth and nose. Surgical masks may also help reduce exposure of your saliva and respiratory secretions to others.
While a surgical mask may be effective in blocking splashes and large-particle droplets, a face mask, by design, does not filter or block very small particles in the air that may be transmitted by coughs, sneezes, or certain medical procedures. Surgical masks also do not provide complete protection from germs and other contaminants because of the loose fit between the surface of the face mask and your face.<<<<<<
You’re right on the money re the N95 shortcomings.
Not only are those 95 grade paper masks not very good at stopping stuff (esp around the sides), they’ll fog your glasses up in a heartbeat.
With razor sharp blades/bits spinning at godawful RPMs, fogged glasses are not a good thing.
Although any mask is a pita, that 3M 6391 w/P100 filters is not only specced to 99.98% but ALSO let’s me see.
So while nothing that I know of is specced to 100%, at least I didn’t end up with bloody stumps for fingers from foggy glasses.