Cargando…

Investigation of the Thermal Comfort Properties of Masks Used during the COVID-19 Pandemic

SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, which was officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020, is transmitted from person to person through respiratory droplets and close contact and can cause severe respiratory failure and pneumonia. Currently, while...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Oner, Eren, Seçkin, Ahmet Çağdaş, Egeli, Dilara, Seçkin, Mine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9517041/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36141548
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811275
_version_ 1784798840049631232
author Oner, Eren
Seçkin, Ahmet Çağdaş
Egeli, Dilara
Seçkin, Mine
author_facet Oner, Eren
Seçkin, Ahmet Çağdaş
Egeli, Dilara
Seçkin, Mine
author_sort Oner, Eren
collection PubMed
description SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, which was officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020, is transmitted from person to person through respiratory droplets and close contact and can cause severe respiratory failure and pneumonia. Currently, while the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing and countries are taking strict precautions to protect populations against infection, the most effective precautions still seem to be social distancing and wearing a mask. The question of how effective masks were in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic has been widely discussed, both in public and scientific circles, and the protection of different mask types has been examined. This study aimed to examine the comfort conditions provided by the different mask types to the user during use. For this purpose, single-ply, double-ply, three-ply, cloth, FFP1, FFP2, and FFP3 masks with different standards were examined, with and without a valve. To conduct the experiments, the novel thermal head measurement system, developed within the scope of this study, was used specifically for mask comfort studies. Thanks to the developed measurement system, the thermal resistance and water vapor resistance values of different masks were measured, and their comfort conditions were evaluated. According to the findings, cloth masks provide a comfortable condition, with lower thermal resistance and water vapor resistance values than other masks. In addition, it was observed that surgical masks offer better thermal comfort conditions, although they have lower protection than FFP masks.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9517041
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-95170412022-09-29 Investigation of the Thermal Comfort Properties of Masks Used during the COVID-19 Pandemic Oner, Eren Seçkin, Ahmet Çağdaş Egeli, Dilara Seçkin, Mine Int J Environ Res Public Health Article SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, which was officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020, is transmitted from person to person through respiratory droplets and close contact and can cause severe respiratory failure and pneumonia. Currently, while the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing and countries are taking strict precautions to protect populations against infection, the most effective precautions still seem to be social distancing and wearing a mask. The question of how effective masks were in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic has been widely discussed, both in public and scientific circles, and the protection of different mask types has been examined. This study aimed to examine the comfort conditions provided by the different mask types to the user during use. For this purpose, single-ply, double-ply, three-ply, cloth, FFP1, FFP2, and FFP3 masks with different standards were examined, with and without a valve. To conduct the experiments, the novel thermal head measurement system, developed within the scope of this study, was used specifically for mask comfort studies. Thanks to the developed measurement system, the thermal resistance and water vapor resistance values of different masks were measured, and their comfort conditions were evaluated. According to the findings, cloth masks provide a comfortable condition, with lower thermal resistance and water vapor resistance values than other masks. In addition, it was observed that surgical masks offer better thermal comfort conditions, although they have lower protection than FFP masks. MDPI 2022-09-08 /pmc/articles/PMC9517041/ /pubmed/36141548 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811275 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Oner, Eren
Seçkin, Ahmet Çağdaş
Egeli, Dilara
Seçkin, Mine
Investigation of the Thermal Comfort Properties of Masks Used during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Investigation of the Thermal Comfort Properties of Masks Used during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Investigation of the Thermal Comfort Properties of Masks Used during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Investigation of the Thermal Comfort Properties of Masks Used during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Investigation of the Thermal Comfort Properties of Masks Used during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Investigation of the Thermal Comfort Properties of Masks Used during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort investigation of the thermal comfort properties of masks used during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9517041/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36141548
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811275
work_keys_str_mv AT onereren investigationofthethermalcomfortpropertiesofmasksusedduringthecovid19pandemic
AT seckinahmetcagdas investigationofthethermalcomfortpropertiesofmasksusedduringthecovid19pandemic
AT egelidilara investigationofthethermalcomfortpropertiesofmasksusedduringthecovid19pandemic
AT seckinmine investigationofthethermalcomfortpropertiesofmasksusedduringthecovid19pandemic