A new study has ranked 14 types of commonly available mask, finding that medical masks offer significantly more protection against droplet spread than cotton alternatives -- while bandanas and balaclavas don't do much at all. SEE ALSO: United in grief: The harsh reality for businessesProfessionally-fitted N95 masks -- hospital-grade protection worn by frontline workers in hospitals -- reduced droplet transmission to less than 0.1 percent. Surgical or polypropylene masks were not far behind, bringing droplet transmission down by 90 percent or more compared to no face-coverings. Hand-made cotton face coverings provided good coverage, eliminating 70 to 90 percent of the spray from normal speech, depending on the number of layers and the pleating. Finally, N-95 masks with valves -- designed for industrial settings where the user's exhalation was less important than what they inhaled -- performed roughly on par with cotton masks in terms of the amount of spray transmitted.

Source: Standard Digital August 11, 2020 09:56 UTC