The Science behind Wearing a Face Mask

The whole world is going through this deadly pandemic due to a virus named COVID-19. Almost 10 million people from all over the world have been affected. To minimize the spread of COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) suggested practicing social distancing. For this reason, the governments of different countries and states considered strict lockdown measures. As we all are aware, the treatment of this virus has not been discovered yet, so it is better to follow precautionary measures. It is not possible to lockdown the states for a long time, as it affects economically. There are some other precautionary measures that you can follow at individual levels. These include maintaining a safe distance from people in public places, washing your hand with soap and water, or using alcohol-based sanitizer. Do not touch your eyes, mouth, or nose, and try to cover your face with a mask. As per the WHO guidelines, the surgical mask or N95 should be kept for healthcare workers and the public can use a custom face mask made up of fabric.

How Do Masks Work?

            Masks help to keep you from inhaling the virus by containing droplets present in the air, and most importantly, preventing the spread of the virus from sick people into the environment. A mask is a physical barrier that filters the air and stops the virus to pass through. Air is a mixture of many molecules. Some of them are floating and some flying in the air. These are measured in microns and there are 1 million microns are in a meter. These molecules cannot be seen through our naked eyes. A few of them a little bit heavier and fall on to the surface, but few of them keep flying in the air. When we breathe, these molecules can be inhaled or exhaled like COVID-19. This is why it is suggested to use masks to control the spread of the virus.

              The fiber of which the mask is made filters these particles. It does not matter what material these masks are made of and they can filter some of the particles of air that passes through it. The particles are stuck to the fiber due to attraction called Vander Waals’ attraction which is a weak electrical force that attracts electrically neutral molecules to each other. This attraction happens, because even as the whole molecule does not have any charge, some part of it may be more positive or negative. This is called polarity. When these molecules are passing through a magnetic field, positive attracts toward negative and negative toward positive.

The fibers of masks are made up of long, complicated polymers that have some polar areas and anything that mask is trying to filter will also have some polarity. When these come in contact, Vander Waals’ forces bind them together. The special medical masks like N95 use electrostatic forces to filter the particulate, in which an electrically charged material is added to the fibers that attract oppositely charged particles. These masks can filter up to 95% of the particles. This is why it is suggested to keep them for healthcare providers which come in close contact with infected patients not only of COVID-19 but other patients as well.

Does the Type of Mask Matter?

The main purpose of wearing a mask is to reduce the risk of spreading the virus, not the complete prevention of it. Special medical masks like N95 are important and should be preserved for our frontline workers. For the general public, the most important thing is their ease, so they can use custom face masks or cloth face masks. The bottom line is to cover and protect your nose and eyes. It should be kept in mind that masks are not the substitute for social distancing and other precautionary measures. You should be following all the precautionary measures recommended by WHO.

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fareedy shakir Joined: April 22nd, 2019