OF late, I have added a new item to my already busy handbag. I feel I can’t leave home without it. This is my face mask.
No, not the ones that are touted to give me Korean idol-smooth skin. Rather they are ones that are supposed to protect my lungs from polluted air currently being made worse by the haze.
I first saw people wearing such masks on the street more than 30 years ago.
It was during my first visit to Tokyo and it was in the middle of winter. My face was freezing and my nose runny, so I was very taken by how the Japanese kept their mugs warm and noses dry with those masks.
Back then, I never thought I would need to wear a mask in my hot and humid country. But, as you know, times have changed and we need the mask, not for protection from the cold but from breathing in harmful air.
When I started visiting Japan and South Korea regularly some years back, I picked up a habit of buying face masks there because I was quite fascinated by the many varieties available.
Over the years, I have quite a collection that has become very handy because different masks serve different purposes.
The most common type is the surgical mask, which is fine for covering up to reduce the spread of germs when you are sick. That’s what the Japanese do. They are trained from young to be fastidious about personal hygiene and to prevent the spread of diseases.
Like many Malaysians, I have picked up the practice too. I see a lot more masked people in hospitals and even the malls, and no one stares or thinks it’s weird.
That kind of loose-fitting surgical masks, however, don’t do a thing for our health where the haze is concerned.
And that is why I was dismayed to see press reports of schoolchildren wearing them, courtesy of the government.
For example, a story on Johor Education, Human Resources, Science and Technology Committee chairman Aminolhuda Hassan distributing 50,000 face masks to schools in Tangkak and Muar last week, had an accompanying photo of him and his team inspecting the boxes of masks while wearing the same masks themselves.
But those are clearly surgical masks and even though they are three-ply, they can only trap microbes and bodily fluids, not air pollutants.
So while the intention was good, it was quite pointless and may unwittingly give a false sense of security to the recipients.
What those schoolkids and everyone else need are masks made from materials that must be able to filter the air we breathe and are air-tight around the nose and mouth.
Governments monitor certain chemicals, namely, carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide and particulate matter or PM2.5 and PM10 in the air. That makes up the air pollutant index (API).
PM10 particles are smaller than 10 microns (0.01mm) and can cause eye and throat irritation and breathing difficulties.
PM2.5 are smaller – 0.0025mm – and are more dangerous as such particles can get lodged deep in the lungs and can cause cancer and other serious health problems.
South Koreans take their masks more seriously and wear them a lot because of the unhealthy levels of fine and yellow dust that affects most of the country, especially during spring and winter.
The masks are given KF ratings by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. KF stands for Korean Filter and the number shows its effectiveness. Hence, a mask with a KF80 can block out 86% of fine dust while KF99 means it’s almost 100% effective.
I have several KF80 masks in my collection and I am going to use them should I need to be outdoors.
Still, what I have are one-time use lightweights compared to the heavy-duty respirators and anti-pollution masks in the market.
I was quite amazed to find online many brands of masks that are practically like air filtration wearables using new materials, shapes and technology that can be washed and used repeatedly.
For example, 3M which makes the well-known classic N95 disposable mask (the 95 denotes it can block out 95% of airborne particles) has new models that are easier and comfortable to wear with an exhaust valve.
Then there’s the Cambridge Mask, which boasts of an inner filtration layer made from pure activated carbon cloth, originally invented by the British Defence Ministry for use in chemical, biological and nuclear warfare protection.
Xiaomi has the Purely Air Mask that comes with a PM2.5 nano filter and a rechargeable battery. Imagine wearing that on your face!
It just goes to show that bad air is global, not just here in our South-East Asian patch. No matter if the source is man-made or natural (like volcanic eruptions), air pollution is transboundary and people in many parts of the world are literally breathing in poison. So it’s not surprising that businesses see the opportunity and are jumping in.
Very soon putting on an anti-pollution mask will be de rigueur for outdoor sporting activities, like a runner wearing a pair of trainers or a cyclist having on a helmet.
We don’t know how long this haze episode will last. On Sunday, the skies over Jambi on Sumatra’s east coast turned blood red as the fires continue to rage out of control. The smoke has spread to Phuket and other parts of southern Thailand as well as central and southern Philippines.
Perhaps rain and wind conditions will help to ease the situation.
But according to the Washington Post, quoting Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service’s senior scientist Mark Parrington, between Aug 1 and Sept 22, about 450 megatons of carbon dioxide were released into the air from these fires. That is just slightly below the 460 megatons released over the same period in 2015, when the region choked in one of the worst haze crises on record.
That amount of carbon dioxide won’t just disappear. Even without forest fires, our air is getting dirtier and dirtier. Scientists have already detected airborne soot from wildfires and fossil fuel combustion in the Antarctic ice.
The harsh reality is we won’t be breathing easier nor can we mask the problem, pun intended. Xiaomi Purely, anyone?
The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.
No, not the ones that are touted to give me Korean idol-smooth skin. Rather they are ones that are supposed to protect my lungs from polluted air currently being made worse by the haze.
I first saw people wearing such masks on the street more than 30 years ago.
It was during my first visit to Tokyo and it was in the middle of winter. My face was freezing and my nose runny, so I was very taken by how the Japanese kept their mugs warm and noses dry with those masks.
Back then, I never thought I would need to wear a mask in my hot and humid country. But, as you know, times have changed and we need the mask, not for protection from the cold but from breathing in harmful air.
When I started visiting Japan and South Korea regularly some years back, I picked up a habit of buying face masks there because I was quite fascinated by the many varieties available.
Over the years, I have quite a collection that has become very handy because different masks serve different purposes.
The most common type is the surgical mask, which is fine for covering up to reduce the spread of germs when you are sick. That’s what the Japanese do. They are trained from young to be fastidious about personal hygiene and to prevent the spread of diseases.
Like many Malaysians, I have picked up the practice too. I see a lot more masked people in hospitals and even the malls, and no one stares or thinks it’s weird.
That kind of loose-fitting surgical masks, however, don’t do a thing for our health where the haze is concerned.
And that is why I was dismayed to see press reports of schoolchildren wearing them, courtesy of the government.
For example, a story on Johor Education, Human Resources, Science and Technology Committee chairman Aminolhuda Hassan distributing 50,000 face masks to schools in Tangkak and Muar last week, had an accompanying photo of him and his team inspecting the boxes of masks while wearing the same masks themselves.
But those are clearly surgical masks and even though they are three-ply, they can only trap microbes and bodily fluids, not air pollutants.
So while the intention was good, it was quite pointless and may unwittingly give a false sense of security to the recipients.
What those schoolkids and everyone else need are masks made from materials that must be able to filter the air we breathe and are air-tight around the nose and mouth.
Governments monitor certain chemicals, namely, carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide and particulate matter or PM2.5 and PM10 in the air. That makes up the air pollutant index (API).
PM10 particles are smaller than 10 microns (0.01mm) and can cause eye and throat irritation and breathing difficulties.
PM2.5 are smaller – 0.0025mm – and are more dangerous as such particles can get lodged deep in the lungs and can cause cancer and other serious health problems.
South Koreans take their masks more seriously and wear them a lot because of the unhealthy levels of fine and yellow dust that affects most of the country, especially during spring and winter.
The masks are given KF ratings by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. KF stands for Korean Filter and the number shows its effectiveness. Hence, a mask with a KF80 can block out 86% of fine dust while KF99 means it’s almost 100% effective.
I have several KF80 masks in my collection and I am going to use them should I need to be outdoors.
Still, what I have are one-time use lightweights compared to the heavy-duty respirators and anti-pollution masks in the market.
I was quite amazed to find online many brands of masks that are practically like air filtration wearables using new materials, shapes and technology that can be washed and used repeatedly.
For example, 3M which makes the well-known classic N95 disposable mask (the 95 denotes it can block out 95% of airborne particles) has new models that are easier and comfortable to wear with an exhaust valve.
Then there’s the Cambridge Mask, which boasts of an inner filtration layer made from pure activated carbon cloth, originally invented by the British Defence Ministry for use in chemical, biological and nuclear warfare protection.
Xiaomi has the Purely Air Mask that comes with a PM2.5 nano filter and a rechargeable battery. Imagine wearing that on your face!
It just goes to show that bad air is global, not just here in our South-East Asian patch. No matter if the source is man-made or natural (like volcanic eruptions), air pollution is transboundary and people in many parts of the world are literally breathing in poison. So it’s not surprising that businesses see the opportunity and are jumping in.
Very soon putting on an anti-pollution mask will be de rigueur for outdoor sporting activities, like a runner wearing a pair of trainers or a cyclist having on a helmet.
We don’t know how long this haze episode will last. On Sunday, the skies over Jambi on Sumatra’s east coast turned blood red as the fires continue to rage out of control. The smoke has spread to Phuket and other parts of southern Thailand as well as central and southern Philippines.
Perhaps rain and wind conditions will help to ease the situation.
But according to the Washington Post, quoting Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service’s senior scientist Mark Parrington, between Aug 1 and Sept 22, about 450 megatons of carbon dioxide were released into the air from these fires. That is just slightly below the 460 megatons released over the same period in 2015, when the region choked in one of the worst haze crises on record.
That amount of carbon dioxide won’t just disappear. Even without forest fires, our air is getting dirtier and dirtier. Scientists have already detected airborne soot from wildfires and fossil fuel combustion in the Antarctic ice.
The harsh reality is we won’t be breathing easier nor can we mask the problem, pun intended. Xiaomi Purely, anyone?
The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.
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