Face Mask

Clean your hands. Before putting on your face mask, wash your hands or clean them with sanitizer.

Grab the mask by the ear strings. The cloth part of your mask is the part that would come in direct contact with the virus particles, so you should handle your mask by the ear strings. This also applies when taking off your mask.

Cover your mouth, nose and chin with the mask. Only covering your mouth with a face mask does not completely protect you from spreading or becoming infected with COVID-19, because droplets infected with the virus can settle in your mouth and nose. “Most droplets come out of your mouth when speaking, but droplets can come out of your nose, too while breathing. That’s why people should cover their nose and their mouth,” Dr. Graham said.

Check for gaps. A properly sized face mask will have minimal gaps under the chin and at the sides. Noticeable gaps between your skin and the mask can allow infected droplets to slip in and out.

When removing your face mask, repeat steps 1 and 2. You wear your mask to protect yourself from harmful germs. Not taking proper precaution when removing your face mask could actually undo all that work that your mask did for you.

Fold the outside corners together. This keeps any infected particles on the outside of your mask from spreading throughout your home, car or wherever you take off your mask.

After more than half a year of fighting the epidemic, people have reached a consensus on the importance of wearing masks. Not only that, with the frequent appearance of masks in our daily lives, many people have discovered more benefits of wearing masks.

Respiratory infectious diseases include common cold, influenza, pneumonia, tuberculosis, etc. The main route of transmission of these diseases is through droplets. For example, when you talk loudly, sneeze, cough or spit, some pathogens will escape into the air and be transmitted to others through droplets. The current novel coronavirus is a highly contagious pathogen. Of course, other viruses and bacteria should not be ignored. Wearing masks can play a very good respiratory preventive role and isolate the germs.

Allergic diseases include allergic rhinitis, allergic dermatitis, allergic asthma, etc. In our lives, we often come into contact with some allergens, such as pollen, dust, animal fur, etc. When these substances come into contact with the facial and nasal mucosa, they will cause mucosal hyperplasia, congestion and edema, leading to symptoms such as nasal congestion, sneezing, runny nose, skin itching, and in severe cases, anaphylactic shock. If we wear masks, we can effectively reduce exposure to allergens and thus prevent allergic diseases.

Hyperventilation syndrome Hyperventilation refers to the respiratory rate being too fast and the depth of breathing being too strong, which causes the carbon dioxide in the body to be excreted excessively, resulting in a decrease in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the body. Patients present with respiratory alkalosis, numbness on the face and around the mouth, and twitching at the end of the fingers. This condition is generally related to psychological factors, mood swings, fever, etc. For patients with hyperventilation, they can be given breathing masks or masks to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide and promote rebreathing of carbon dioxide, and the patient's symptoms will gradually improve.

Anti-smog: There are more and more respiratory diseases now, which may be closely related to air pollution, so anti-smog is also very important. There are many toxic substances in smog that can cause great harm to the human body, affecting the respiratory system, cardiovascular system, nervous system, etc. Wearing a mask correctly can effectively prevent pollutants from entering the respiratory tract and isolate toxic and harmful substances. Therefore, it is necessary to wear a mask when going out in hazy days.

Preventing "second-hand smoke" We may encounter the harassment of "second-hand smoke" on some occasions, and wearing a mask can prevent "second-hand smoke" to a certain extent, especially a good-quality activated carbon mask. This kind of mask can absorb and filter part of the smoke and harmful substances such as nicotine and tar, which can reduce harm to the body to a certain extent. Moreover, wearing a mask can also reduce the damage to the respiratory tract caused by dust and irritating gases, which can be said to have many benefits.