CO2 and You - CO2's Impact on Mask Wearers

(cross-posted from LinkedIn)

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Sweet Jesus almighty… I saw a grandma last night–she couldn’t have been younger than 85—wearing a surgical mask that came up around her ears. And on top of that I read about a grandpa dying because he was wearing a mask while driving. WTF man?

Good morning LinkedIn People…

It’s time for Uncle Rob’s corner.

Today we are going to talk about CO₂, hypercapnia, and those cloth masks (everyone has one and they’re sooo cute—Resistant to oil, Partially resistant to oil, Definitely Not resistant to oil), and every alphabet soup mask on the planet (N95, N99, N100, P95, and KN95 masks).

According to Webster’s Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/carbon%20dioxide

“CO₂ is a heavy colorless gas CO₂ that does not support combustion, dissolves in water to form carbonic acid, is formed especially in animal respiration and in the decay or combustion of animal and vegetable matter, is absorbed from the air by plants in photosynthesis, and is used in the carbonation of beverages.”

Basically, it’s a byproduct of living. And, you can make bubbles in beer with it.

Now hypercapnia (a $1.00 word doctors use) as defined by Oxford’s Google dictionary, means “excessive carbon dioxide in the bloodstream”.

There’s all kinds of drama associated with hypercapnia, like:

• Confusion,
• Paranoia,
• Hyperventilation,
• Panic attacks,
• Arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat),
• Headache (my favorite – it takes like 2 days for it to go away)

And the list goes on and on…

When it comes to face masks, there are three words you need to worry about. A sailor favorite,

The Triple F’s: Fit, Form, and Function.

Fit—get yourself fit tested. If you’ve got a damn peanut head and you’re wearing an extra large mask, I’ll refrain from calling you dumb, but you’re going to have a CO₂ problem from wearing a mask that’s too damn big for your face. Form—for you Divas out there, we want it to look good. Function—it needs to protect the wearer, not kill you (while looking fabulous).

Now let’s talk about these wanna be surgical masks that people are wearing nowadays.

When you strap on one of the “cool-guy” masks with the handy dandy filter inside, and the plastic whatevers on the side of the mouth, what are you really getting? You are getting some form of neoprene, denim, or thick cotton material; some even come with an honest to goodness filter inside, all for the low, low price of $15.99.

Now, I know what you’re saying…But Uncle Rob, it’s got a filter! Nope—that filter is acting like a CO₂ sponge, catching the CO₂ from the exhaled gas and storing it until you breathe your stinky breath back in (here’s a plug from your mom – brush your teeth, it won’t smell as bad). After a while, the CO₂ percentage in your body climbs, and like a magician yelling WHAAA LA—suddenly you’ve got hypercapnia. We (editor’s note: meaning Frank Hernandez, our resident design and testing guru. Rob hasn't done shit) have tested hundreds of masks, mask styles, filters and assemblies. We’ve seen filter material that was so thin you could see through it—and it’s the absolute worst thing to ever strap on to your face. Breathing pressures were in the 80 cmH2O ballpark. Some context for the scorekeepers at home—NIOSH requirements are 35 cmH₂0 on inhale and 20 cmH₂O on exhale. And the CO₂ was peaking around 4% on inhale. That 4% is what might have gotten ole pawpaw.

We need to be educated consumers, and we are not. Not that we’re being helped much by media and business. I can go on www.foxnews.com and at the top of the page is a banner ad from some manufacturer selling some kind of bullshit. If it loops around your head or ears, it’s black and has some fancy exhalation valve—folks, for the love of all that is holy – ask what testing they’ve done. They may say their filter efficiency is 99.99999%--better than N95! Perhaps they’ll claim it’s made of antibacterial metal and will protect your butt—sure, and their bottom line. But it’s all *shit* if they haven’t undergone testing.

Here’s a couple of quick down and dirty rules of thumb:

1.     If you breathe through the filter and your cheeks puff out—set the mask down and walk away. Perhaps give it to an enemy.

2.     If you’re wearing one of these new fangled contraptions and the air you’re breathing feels warm and humid… well, it’s probably the wrong size for you, and there’s too much CO₂ in your inhaled air. Walk quickly away.

3.     If you’re wearing a clear mask and you see condensation inside – there’s waaaaay too much CO₂. There's nothing that a proper application of explosives can't fix.

Whether you’re wearing a mask, filtered face piece, “cool guy mask” or anything else that you strap to your face and breathe through, the air should feel like you’re breathing normally, without the mask on. It should be fairly easy to breathe through and the air should feel about normal (sans mask).

Here’s my ask… don’t just read this and move on. Read it, print it and pass it around. Your local fire-station has fit checking machines, if they don’t – they know who does, and they might just help you determine what size face you’ve got. Visit them, say hi (maybe call first), ask for a fit check.

Don’t be that guy. And wash your damn hands.