About This Archive  | DCHAS-L 2020 Index   | DCHAS-L Yearly Index
person wearing a disposable face shield and surgical style mask

Check out Safety Emporium for your N95, N99, and face shield needs.

Previous by Date:
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Cloth face masks trapping fumes
Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2020 at 4:10:57 PM
Author: "Burgmeier, Sally" <sallyburgmeier**At_Symbol_Here**AUGUSTANA.EDU> 		Next by Date:
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Cloth face masks trapping fumes
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2020 16:45:16 -0400
Author: Zack Mansdorf

From: Janet Baum <baum.janet**At_Symbol_Here**GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Cloth face masks trapping fumes
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2020 16:27:27 -0400
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Message-ID: CAAgNRJh6yLMpKXx_NS7-d0Yk0s4hz2xQqXAxf3mOA1aN-g0RUw**At_Symbol_Here**mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To


Dear Sally, Plastic face shields are worn with cloth masks, not alone to reduce CV-19 spread. Droplets and aerosols from users' mouths or noses can drop under shields. Shields do not eliminate the risk of contaminated aerosols passing under the bottom edge of shields and reaching the wearer's mouth, nose, or other parts of the face. Using both mask and shield do.

The face masks may be a good idea to add to your students' use of cloth masks so that droplets from hazardous chemicals do not reach their faces. In all of the official reports from OSHA, CDC, NIH and anecdotal accounts on use of cloth masks, there has been no comment on the possibility of fumes "trapped" beneath cloth masks. Check the cloth mask literature.
Janet Baum, Instructor, T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA

On Tue, Jun 23, 2020 at 4:13 PM Burgmeier, Sally <sallyburgmeier**At_Symbol_Here**augustana.edu> wrote:
My teaching colleagues are concerned that cloth or surgical face masks worn by students or faculty in a chemistry lab setting where volatile chemicals are used, for example organic lab, could trap fumes within the masks and therefore be harmful to the user? They are wondering if face shields should be worn in labs instead of cloth face masks to prevent covid19 spreading, but mot allow chemical fume buildup.
We do have fume hoods for every student to use. Any guidance on this issue?
Thank you,
Sally Burgmeier
Chemistry Safety Officer
Augustana College

--- For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org Follow us on Twitter **At_Symbol_Here**acsdchas
--- For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org Follow us on Twitter **At_Symbol_Here**acsdchas

Previous post   |  Top of Page   |   Next post


The content of this page reflects the personal opinion(s) of the author(s) only, not the American Chemical Society, ILPI, Safety Emporium, or any other party. Use of any information on this page is at the reader's own risk. Unauthorized reproduction of these materials is prohibited. Send questions/comments about the archive to secretary@dchas.org.
The maintenance and hosting of the DCHAS-L archive is provided through the generous support of Safety Emporium.