Mask, Mask Who’s There!

[AnushilaC (Dr. Anushila Chatterjee)]

Rationale:

Face masks, including disposable surgical masks and reusable cloth masks, have become a part of our daily life since the global COVID-19 pandemic hit us. Public use of face masks protects others from the wearer’s respiratory droplets as well as the wearer from airborne contaminants. This is how masks can prevent the spread of the coronavirus that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Masks that are not washed frequently or worn for prolonged periods could trap dust, dirt, sweat and various other microbes. After each wear microbes from even a healthy wearer’s own respiratory droplets collect on the inside and outside of a mask. Furthermore, high moisture retention capacity of cotton along with its ability to serve as a substrate for microbial growth, augments microbial accumulation on cotton masks compared to the disposable surgical masks. Therefore, proper sanitization of masks is imperative. However, many people reuse masks and other face coverings many times without washing them or wear the same disposable surgical mask for a prolonged period.
Through this project we will learn the importance of discarding the surgical masks or washing the reusable masks after one use to prevent microbes from accumulating on the mask and potentially cause other illness.

Face masks, including disposable surgical masks and reusable cloth masks, have become a part of our daily life since the global COVID-19 pandemic hit us. Public use of face masks protects others from the wearer’s respiratory droplets as well as the wearer from airborne contaminants. This is how masks can prevent the spread of the coronavirus that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Masks that are not washed frequently or worn for prolonged periods could trap dust, dirt, sweat and various other microbes. After each wear microbes from even a healthy wearer’s own respiratory droplets collect on the inside and outside of a mask. Furthermore, high moisture retention capacity of cotton along with its ability to serve as a substrate for microbial growth, augments microbial accumulation on cotton masks compared to the disposable surgical masks. Therefore, proper sanitization of masks is imperative. However, many people reuse masks and other face coverings many times without washing them or wear the same disposable surgical mask for a prolonged period.

Through this project we will learn the importance of discarding the surgical masks or washing the reusable masks after one use to prevent microbes from accumulating on the mask and potentially cause other illness.

[gungun (Garima upadhyay)]

This study is about living organisms that are invisible to the naked eye, so it becomes more interesting. As we are all wearing masks during the global pandemic, the microbes that accumulate on our masks are highly relevant to our health and disease. I am very interested to do the mask project as I have only read about microbes so far but now I will know more about them by doing this project.

We have started doing the project, we are a group of 6 people who are doing this project.

We will update here as our project progresses.

[kanchanbafila]

      In this pandemic stage  mask have become an essential part for everyone. 

To avoid CORONA, everyone uses the mask, but no one think about the bacteria growing in it. Many bacteria grow in the mask which can also be harmful for us (in that condition when we will not wash it properly).
We are going to start a project through this project we want to know or explore that what microbes might be growing on our masks.
For this,
First of all we are doing a survey in which we have taken self-made cloth masks and disposable surgical masks and asked some questions related to them… We are doing this project in a group.

          *The survey process is still going on*

Here is a link of survey -
https://metastudio.org/t/mask-mask-who-s-there/13179

[sakshi_pant]

There are many things which are visible to us, we can see ,touch and feel them but things didn’t stop there ,there are many thins which are present around us and even on us and we all know some microbes are harmful for us and some are beneficial too. During this difficult time of pandemic ,everyone was scared of an invisible micro organism called corona virus or covid-19 , and this fear is still going on.

The word mask has become very familiar to us nowadays. Almost everyone uses the mask, there is a variety of masks available in the market, sometimes I get confused which mask should I use? Which mask is better ?
So what I found is depending upon its use and hygiene, any mask is good, and remember hygiene is most important.

So, we all want to know that what are the microbes which might be present in our masks, how they look like, how they survive etc.

As I mentioned about the hygiene of masks, it is important for us to know that how people treating their masks, what is the use and hygiene status of our masks . For this information we are doing a pre experimental survey, as Kanchan also mentioned in her post , as we have started getting the data, I am going to share some glimpses of that data here.