[A
You may have spotted them on the street.
Maybe you're wearing one.
If you want to protect yourself from what other people are
exhaling, this is the one to get.
How does this mask make you feel?
I personally feel a lot safer.
I have a weak immune system so I'd rather really be protected.
[Asha] Respirator style masks have become a preferred choice
in this pandemic, designed to filter out 95% of what
you breathe in.
But do they really offer all that extra protection?
To find out, we go shopping for the queen of the mask pack.
It's a protective face mask rated to capture 95%.
[Asha] And we find masks labelled KN95.
That's China's equivalent to the well-known N95.
They've got a woman in scrubs wearing the mask.
This one has the FDA logo, seems pretty legit to me.
[Asha] We also find KF94, the Korean standard.
Protects you against over 94% of airborne particles.
I'm going to put this one in the cart.
[Asha] Prices range from less than a dollar to four bucks
a piece.
We purchase 14 brands in total, from Amazon and some of
the big box stores.
Then we take them to the university of Toronto's
Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
James Scott and his team will see if these masks live up to
the standards they claim.
What all of these tests do is they subject the mask to an
aerosol, so an atmosphere of very fine particles.
[Asha] This equipment will tell us up to the decimal point
the percentage of particles each mask can filter.
This crew will test three from each brand, and while testing
gets underway at U of T, we meet Dr. Jay Park in sunny
San Diego, California.
Hi, Dr. Park, good to see you.
Hi, how are you? Good to see you too.
[Asha] He's an emergency room physician.
After three of his colleagues died of COVID, he turned his
focus to vetting respirators.
I just felt like it was my duty to protect my friends.
[Asha] What he found out was unsettling.
Up to 90% of what we were getting were either
misleading or potentially counterfeit,
or falsely advertised.
[Asha] Today he's telling us which ones to avoid.
First red flag, the box.
It should include the manufacturer's name and address.
It just says KN95 three-dimensional protective
respirator, doesn't even have a brand that I can see on it.
You don't want to buy something and not know who
the manufacturer is for you to be
able to trace back and say okay, this is who made it and I can
look up their registration or certification online.
Everything about it shows that it's official.
Even on the side, FDA approved.
[Asha] Turns out that's the second red flag.
That FDA logo is not allowed.
If it has an FDA logo on the box and-- or on the respirator, then
it's definitely not FDA approved, cleared,
or authorized.
[Asha] We'll unpack the final red flag in just a moment.
But first...our results are in.
And get this.
Half of the masks we tested failed.
Surprised?
So are these folks.
Half did not meet the filtration standards that they claim.
Oh, I'm shocked, actually.
I feel like somebody has lied to me.
[Asha] Just check out the results for these KN95s
we bought off of well.ca, a shopping portal for
Rexall pharmacies.
So well.ca did very poorly on our tests, unfortunately.
One of them tested below 60%.
Yeah.
It's really worrying that there's a mask on the market
that you can purchase that claims this, to have
met the standard and it fails so badly.
[Asha] Well.ca doesn't respond to our results.
Instead, they direct us to the manufacturer.
We ask repeatedly who that is.
They won't tell us, and it's not listed on the box either.
Walmart's masks are another fail.
They filtered less than 75% of particles.
Walmart says they should have never been for sale.
They've now removed them and the other KN95s we flag.
A few from Home Depot and Home Hardware test just below
the standard.
They come in just a percentage point or two
below, but...
A fail is a fail is a fail.
I'm a university professor, and I have students who take an
exam, and they don't pass the exam, but maybe they only failed
the exam by a percent or two, and unfortunately those students
still fail the exam.
[Asha] Despite our results, these retailers say their masks
follow regulatory standards.
Home Depot adds they're investigating further.
If you're just using this to go shopping or do low risk
activities, then yes, your testing results do show that it
protects you better than cloth masks.
You don't have to throw them out.
I think that you just need to be informed that these do not meet
KN95, 95% filtration standards.
[Asha] As for Amazon, three didn't deliver on their claims,
Including this Seal Goods brand which registered
as low as 19% filtration, the lowest on our list.
So it came like this.
You can see two packages here, this one came in a Ziploc bag.
Would you use this, Dr. Park?
No, I would not use it.
[Asha] That leads us to the final red flag.
Unmarked, sketchy packaging.
You don't know who the manufacturer is, and you don't
know how safely they were packed.
[Asha] Amazon says they make sure the masks on their site are
legit and remove bad actors.
We tried reaching out to the sellers.
Most have disappeared.
One says the masks we bought could be counterfeit.
One of the KN95s came back 19% filtration.
Oh boy.
[Asha] Our expert says you can even wear a towel and it would
give you better protection.
Really?
Perhaps retailers have to be a bit more careful about where
they source this merchandise.
So what can you do before you hit the buy button?
Cut out resellers.
Buy from companies with a history in PPE.
Go online and check out if your mask is authorized by
Health Canada or the FDA.
You can also search the CDC for a list of counterfeits.
So that's a little tip for you, I hope that helps.
It sure does.
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