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by gnat 1631 days ago
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72798-7

"Here, we measured outward emissions of micron-scale aerosol particles by healthy humans performing various expiratory activities while wearing different types of medical-grade or homemade masks. Both surgical masks and unvented KN95 respirators, even without fit-testing, reduce the outward particle emission rates by 90% and 74% on average during speaking and coughing, respectively, compared to wearing no mask, corroborating their effectiveness at reducing outward emission."
2 comments
beerandt 1630 days ago
>Surprisingly, wearing an unwashed single layer t-shirt (U-SL-T) mask while breathing yielded a significant increase in measured particle emission rates compared to no mask, increasing to a median of 0.61 particles/s. The rates for some participants (F1 and F4) exceeded 1 particle/s, representing a 384% increase from the median no-mask value.

Double cloth had a higher but not statistically significant increase in particle count (so equivalent to being unmasked) while vented N95s reduced particle surprisingly well.

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GekkePrutser 1630 days ago
It says single layer cloth there, not double :)

What I did strange is that the cloth masks are mostly stuffier and harder to breathe than the surgical ones, which filter much better.

The FFP ones are of course the worst to use but also the best at filtering.

Either way I can't wait till we can safely get rid of all of them though... I wish there were powered ones with fans to pull in filtered but fresh air. But the only one I've seen is the Razer Hydra and it's always out of stock. It's also huge and looks like a WW2 gas mask so it's not really street smart.

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beerandt 1630 days ago
The study included single and double layer; both were an increase vs no mask, but only single was statistically significant.
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DrScump 1626 days ago
>"...outward particle emission rates..."

That's outward transmission when the wearer is already infected, which has nothing to do with mask protection of the uninfected.

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jacquesm 1626 days ago
Of course it does: if the recipient is uninfected, and if they are already infected then it doesn't matter.
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