After Getting Scooped by This Blog, Popular Mechanics Climbs on Mask Fitter Bandwagon

 

After getting totally scooped on mask fitters by this blog, Popular Mechanics has done a me-too story about them. They did have a few interesting value-added items though. 

First, they cited a University of Iowa study that says masks secured with fitters were not as good as N95 masks. That study is already published and disagrees with the one I reviewed in January, which is still not published. As far as I can tell, the Iowa study didn't measure actual particle filtration, and is basing this conclusion on ASTM filtration figures for procedure masks. 

Second, they present some interesting ideas about making fitters out of rubber bands and paper clips.

Third, they reported on a company that can make a mask fitter for your own personal face. It uses a scan of your face generated by an Apple device with Face ID (sorry Android users). This information is used to drive a 3-D printer that makes a customized brace. Perhaps Corona-zona will attempt to get and test one of these (even though we're an Android shop).

Image from Wikipedia

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