Unmask the mask, remove this shield!
Chandrasekaran Jayaraman
Founder Director @ Watsan Envirotech | LIF Innovator of the year 2024 by Royal Academy of Engineering, London. Fellow, Researcher on Sustainability, Water and Sanitation solutions.
Mask:
It has become a fashion statement for people to walk around like the Vanaras in Kishkinda Gant of Ramayana, with their masks on. Listen to renowned Dr. Devi Shetty's plea in this YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfeUkp6D7rg
He clearly requests people in home and those who come out for essentials' purchase to make pure ctton masks and wear them, wash with soap and reuse, not to use the surgical 3 ply masks or the N95 masks, as they are short of supply badly for the doctors and paramedics across the country, and sad part #GOI and all the states are placing orders to China who in fact was the root cause of this pandemonium. Chinese, Indonesian and Taiwan make masks are flying all over, left, right, centre, bottom and are being worn by everybody, and re-worn again and again as if they put their angavastra or pallu above!
Some inquisitive aunts have come out with using hairbands and file folders to make face shields! Innovative but dangerous! I saw in facebook and got startled! Now another bunch of jokers are going to add to the plastic pile and the happy OHP films' seller will jack his price from Rs.3.00 to 18.00 (rates as of date)
Please spare the surgical masks to the medicos!
Face Shield
The Government 's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare clearly mentions in its website as follows:
Description of Face shield:
? Made of clear plastic and provides good visibility to both the wearer and the patient
? Adjustable band to attach firmly around the head and fit snuggly against the forehead
? Fog resistant (preferable)
? Completely covers the sides and length of the face
? May be re-usable (made of material which can be cleaned and disinfected) or disposable
? Quality compliant with the below standards, or equivalent:
a. EU standard directive 86/686/EEC, EN 166/2002
b. ANSI/SEA Z87.1-2010
and the SAD part is all those marked bold and in Italics are not there in the innovative way the Overhead Projector Film (or PET films) they are called. The same PET which was a villain and is still in villain as the earth fill in form of bottle, sinking in tonnes in oceans and lakes making lives miserable both in land and sea! Thanks to some good efforts of m,any textile yarn manufacturers, these PET bottles are now recycled to make T Shirts out of the bottles, but that cannot be the case with the 2 tonnes of films which are being thrown out daily everyday as DISPOSABLE, as a use and throw face shield!
If the guidelines clearly says, sterilisable, fog resistant and with adjustable band, where is the question of using a flimsy film as face shield? Is it anti-fogging, UV resistant material and really does stay stable? Obviously not! So flouting rules and selling something as an excuse as because the words sheet or film is not defined clearly, and sterilisation is prioritised over disposal (both are totally opposite!) in the sentence, people are selling these items involving a risk of dumping tonnes of such infected films out in the bins. Who knows a rag picker may pick and clean and bring it back to the market, or the virus which stays longer on plastics infect the rag picker or if they are not moving around, is still airborne microbe?
GOD save the doctors and the paramedics! I wish the @MoHFW_INDIA redefines the words mask and shields,
Allow the three ply mask and N95 masks be available ONLY to doctors and paramedics and not to common public and ban the sale of such masks for common public.
GOI's advice on making own masks is very prevalent for people staying at home and are maintaining safe distance between them and to specify the shields be rinsed and washed with soap, followed by dry air bath followed by UV sterilisation and allow or advice the doctors to use their individual shield daily themselves and for more days/ months.
Sad to say when I spoke to few doctors, they admitted the disposal is a health hazard but said they prefer fresh new films daily than the sterilised shields, but were mum when I quantified the volume of plastic pile they are creating as solid waste, medical waste dump outside!
Worst, the very Chinese who gave Corona to the world are now supplying containers of such cheap films and masks to all countries including India. Were we talking about #MakeinIndia ?
Founder Director @ Watsan Envirotech | LIF Innovator of the year 2024 by Royal Academy of Engineering, London. Fellow, Researcher on Sustainability, Water and Sanitation solutions.
4 年We did sterilisable re-usable face shields and also protective incubation hood See https://photos.app.goo.gl/zJCanS5QMFzWNVii7 and https://photos.app.goo.gl/boHMGcKkP2WwjYM69
Director at Auda Intertrade Pty Ltd
4 年Interesting! Lot of traders are trying to make quick money by importing masks from the country of origin of the problem. Taiwan has a good company Bio-Kil (Cargico group)manufacturing quality masks but at the moment Taiwan is banned from export of masks. Yes, repeatedly many talk about the masks being needed only by the medicos. But I think the fear of the unknown drives people to try anything and the cheapest available. The BIGGER problem indeed is the disposal of all COVID waste. I wonder if anyone takes it up seriously to let the powers that be aware of this huge problem. I do believe that if people are worried they may use home made clean textile fabric masks which have been thoroughly washed and disinfected before use and do the same every time after use. Perhaps drying them (after washing) in high temperature may help kill any traces of bacteria left on them after use. I am not an expert on this field. But these are my thoughts based on what I learnt till now.