Measurement of cough-wind pressure: masks for mitigating an influenza pandemic.
To assess the degree to which face masks reduce the strength of cough-wind, we measured the wind pressure in front of the mouth with and without the wearing of masks. We found that any conventional masks made from paper, cotton gauze, or non-woven fabrics reduced the wind pressure to less than one-tenth that recorded when no mask was worn.
Inouye
Sakae
S
Public Health Research Unit, Otsuma Women's University, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan. sinouye@otsuma.ac.jp
Okabe
Nobuhiko
N
Obara
Hiromichi
H
Sugihara
Yoshibumi
Y
D000328:Adult; D003371:Cough / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D008297:Male; D008397:Masks; D011312:Pressure; D012123:Pulmonary Ventilation / Q000502:physiology