Stream: social
Topic: Facemask alternative materials
Dave deBronkart (Mar 21 2020 at 02:43):
My colleague in the BMJ Patient Advisory Panel, Amy Price, just co-authored a paper (March 19) on coping with the shortage of face masks. One table compares effectiveness of alternative materials for homemade masks, ranging from silk (not very good) up to vacuum cleaner bags (!!!) Also discussed are alternatives for sanitizing and reusing equipment - generally not recommended, but since the existence of this discussion means we're basically in a war zone, it's good to have something sane to point to.
What are good ways to address the shortage of face masks by anesthesiologists?
p.s. The vacuum cleaner bag is very effective at filtration but REALLY hard to breathe through, so it doesn't work out well.
René Spronk (Mar 21 2020 at 09:25):
A Dutch hospital also went with one of the layers of lining in a vacuum cleaner bag. Not all if t, just one of its layers. They had access to this layer (i.e. the material used in that layer) directly from a manufacturer.
Rik Smithies (Mar 21 2020 at 10:11):
You would hope that manufacturers could increase productivity, but if there are real shortages in hospitals, should we all be making these for care workers? If we can knit clothes for koalas, we can make masks for nurses.
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
