Abstract
HOLOGRAPHIC METHOD TO EVALUATE THE FACE MASK EFFICACY
Niveen Farid Abdel Maaboud* and Sanaa Mohamed Enany
ABSTRACT
The pandemic of the Corona virus has increased demand for face masks to prevent the virus from spreading from one person to another. Due to the shortage of medical masks in many circumstances, numerous public health organizations have approved the use of other types of masks as suitable alternatives. Cotton masks are low-cost alternative masks that are popular in developing countries because they can be washed and dried several times and used for up to months. The cotton masks can be one or two layers thick with stretchy earloops. However, if this type of mask is used for an extended period of time, its quality decreases and its capacity to filter out released particles is compromised. Although wearing a mask is partly intended to shield others from inhaled and virus-containing particles, few research have looked into the emission of particles from a face mask into the surrounding air. In this paper, we investigate the emission of micro particles using a micro-dispensing device that simulates exhale while using various masks. The filtering efficiency of cotton masks was found to be lower than that of surgical masks as the study proved that surgical masks minimize external particle emission rates and sizes compared to cotton masks, which confirms the power of medical masks' efficiency. The study was made using the digital in-line holography which could image the emitted particles for digital analysis. The number of particles emitted within a given area allowed us to determine the particle emission rate.
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