Disposable dust mask stash

[sean meltvedt]

For those of us whom have some extra dust masks in the shop-if you can spare some, your local medical folks would be ever so grateful to receive them. My daughter works at a Spokane hospital and they are using scarves as face masks.
cheers
Sean

[Ron Selzer]

finally was allowed back in my shop after surgery and was digging for sandpaper when I noticed a box of dust masks. Looked at them and they were n95 so took them nextdoor the next morning handed them to my neighbor. His wife is a nurse in a hospital in Columbus. He was happy. They have shoveled snow from my walk and driveway and done other things for me, glad I could help a little in return

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mine went to California with my wife who is watching our 3 youngest grandchildren and conducting their home studying. Our DIL is a pharmacist working in two different hospitals.

[sean meltvedt]

Glad to hear it guys. Hopefully more will do the same. (Maybe even in Spokane)
Cheers
Sean

[Bruce Wrenn]

News from Duke Health. By treating N-95 mask with hydrogen peroxide mist for four hours they are safe to reuse. Same machine that is used to disinfect rooms can also be used to do masks. This should help some. But don't worry, "We are distributing millions and millions of these masks."

[Matt Day]

Curious if a standard dust mask would be useful for a hospital? They aren’t n95 so don’t stop transmission of the virus right?

[Jim Becker]

Curious if a standard dust mask would be useful for a hospital? They aren’t n95 so don’t stop transmission of the virus right?

It's more like they are less likely to stop the transmission because of how most are constructed as well as the lack of the pocket for the internal filter. But in some cases, they may be better than nothing. Professor Dr. SWMBO broke out the sewing machine late last week and in between Zoom sessions with students and faculty, started working on some masks. Being someone facil with research, there have been a lot of interesting things realized...one being somewhat critical no matter what mask type...fit, especially up at the nose. The bottom line...the non N95 masks are not all that far behind an N95 mask for filtering small stuff so they can be used in a pinch. But only if they fit properly and securely.

To the OP, many folks have been doing as you state. I haven't used disposables for many years and didn't have any old ones in the shop, either.