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[Charlsie] Putting your masks to the test.
Let's finally clear the air.
What keeps you safe and what's clearly dangerous.
[♪♪♪]
[Charlsie] All the athletes wear these.
So, 60% nylon, 30% polyester, 91% hemp, 100%
cotton, 100% polyurethane.
So many masks.
So many types.
They're everywhere.
A mask vending machine.
Now I have literally seen it all.
And with so much out there we want to know,
do some masks work better than others?
How do you think this would do?
Not sure.
[Charlsie] Nine months into the pandemic
we still have no standards for consumer face masks.
That's why we're buying more than 20 different types.
And taking them to the University of Toronto's
Dalla Lana school of public health.
They're going to see how effective these masks are when
it comes to seal and fit.
They'll also test the material using the same standard for
medical masks like the N95.
The salt air is going to come out of here.
[Charlsie] We know the coronavirus can be as small
as 100 nanometres.
About 1/1000th the width of a human hair.
The test will measure how many of those tiny nano particles
are getting through the mask.
Then we close the box, so we seal in all the air.
It's one of the toughest tests out there.
And then it all gets measured in the computer down there.
[Charlsie] COVID spreads primarily through the air,
attaching to the droplets you exhale. And as they become
smaller aerosols, they can travel great distances.
Now notice with a mask how it slows or stops the spread
of those particles, protecting others around you.
But new science shows masks can protect you, too.
[Charlsie] Monica Gandhi is an infectious disease expert at the
University of California, San Francisco; she's on the
forefront of this research.
[Charlsie] The hypothesis, masking leads to fewer deaths
and more asymptomatic cases.
But there's still lots of confusion out there.
[Charlsie] That's what we've asked the University of Toronto
to find out.
James Scott is a Bioaerosols professor.
He's overseeing our test.
Fair to say, there were some surprises.
There were lots of surprises.
[Charlsie] First up.
This single layer polyester gaiter mask.
What was the deal with this?
If you look at that fabric, it has very large pores in it.
Air can simply sail straight through it.
[Charlsie] Turns out not this mask is not very effective
at filtering out those tiny particles.
These bandanas don't do so great either
We actually tested a bunch of these masks.
Anything about what these masks are made of catches your eye
in terms of being better than say something else?
They all kind of look the same, but if I were to choose one,
I guess I'd go for either the bandana or this white one here.
I wouldn't use the bandana one, it looks like it has a thin
material and a lot can go through that.
So happy you mentioned material.
So, this bandana yes, super thin material did not do very well.
Same with the gaiter.
Thinner weave didn't do so hot.
Wow, talk about learning something new every day.
[Charlsie] Now...
What about those valve masks?
Ok, so this is something you guys did to sort of illustrate
the issue with the valve mask to us.
And there it is.
It's just sort of pouring out of there.
Why do we want everyone to wear a mask?
Well, we want everyone to wear a mask because we want to reduce
the potential for there to be this virus in the air.
This doesn't do any of that at all.
[Charlsie] We find it does a poor job of filtering particles.
And could even further spread infectious diseases.
Health Canada warns not to use them.
But seems not everyone is getting that message.
Spotted in Ottawa, the parliamentary protection
service, wearing valve masks.
They tell us they're phasing them out.
But many other places still offer them for sale.
Without warnings.
The masks that perform best?
Disposable surgical-type masks with non-woven polypropylene.
You can see no holes at all in that.
Yeah, it's like a wall.
That fabric pulls out lots and lots of particles.
Far more than the other fabrics that we've looked it.
[Charlsie] And get this.
A three-layer mask with non-woven polypropylene
between two layers of cotton
works as well as the gold standard, a medical N95.
And it's way more comfortable.
That is remarkable.
It certainly performed honestly almost as well as N95.
Perfect, that's really good to know.
I'm looking at buying new masks and now I know what to look for.
[Charlsie] 100% cotton masks though were
an interesting story.
These three-layer cotton masks didn't do so well but these ones
with only 2 layers did much better.
Hmm.
What does Scott think is happening there?
Well, when it comes to cotton, quality makes a big difference.
The high thread count cotton masks we tested,
600 thread count and above, performed very well.
The higher thread count cotton, when it's woven together
has smaller and smaller and smaller pores.
As air moves through, it needs to travel a circuitous
pathway and that's what's really responsible for
trapping particles.
So, there's more of a chance of those
little coronavirus guys getting stuck on something like
this and even more of a chance if there's more than
one layer of this.
Exactly.
[Charlsie] Bottom line, look for masks with multiple layers.
And the higher the thread count cotton, the better.
But that can be tough to find out.
It's probably not on the label.
Because manufacturers don't have to put it there.
The higher the thread count, the better the job it does in terms
of filtering those potentially harmful particles.
Wow, that's interesting.
[Charlsie] But that's not the most important thing when
it comes to selecting a mask that's right for you.
Fit is the first thing.
No matter how good the mask is, if it doesn't fit your face,
then put it back.
[Charlsie] There's barely any leakage coming from this mask.
Now check this out.
This is the unsealed mask.
[Scott] If the mask doesn't fit your face, then air will simply
move around rather than through the mask.
If your glasses fog up, your mask doesn't fit very well.
See how it's sealed?
But now watch this one.
Oh wow, yeah.
There is smoke everywhere.
-Fog and steam. -Oh, yeah.
Leakage.
Does any of this change what masks you'd get in the future?
Oh, absolutely.
It makes you think before you put one on.
If your glasses fog up, it's a sign your fit over
your nose is not tight enough.
So, I think I need to change my mask.
I think you might.