“Abstract
Surgical face masks are an important component of surgical apparel. The masks are expected to perform as barriers and provide increased protection to the patients and health care workers. In this study, the Bacterial Filtration Efficiency (BFE) of six commercially available surgical face masks was determined for two microorganisms. Fabric characteristics (weight, thickness, pore size, and resistance to synthetic blood strike through) thought to influence the barrier effectiveness were measured and the relationship between these characteristics and BFE was examined. Two challenge microorganisms... were evaluated in this study...
Results and Discussion
The fabric characterization results for the three face masks are presented in Table 3. The pleated masks [masks #1-3] had lower pore size means than the molded masks [masks #4-6]…
Conclusions
… Although there were no significant differences between the face masks, the bacterium did have a significant influence on the facemask performance... This was likely due to the size and shape of the bacteria.”
The diameter of SARS-CoV-2 is 50-200 nm (0.05-0.2 micrometers). Compare to the mean and maximum pore size of the surgical masks of this study.
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