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Wearing an FFP2 mask outside, what’s the point?
Can use FFP2 skins multiple times
Not only in Bavaria, but also in other federal states, the obligation to wear an FFP2 mask on local public transport could be introduced. These masks are not cheap. But it is possible to use it multiple times.
In spring weather, the weekend became crowded in many city parks. Therefore, some people decided to wear an FFP2 mask outdoors. Experts are quite skeptical about the benefits.
When the sun shines and temperatures rise, people are thrown out of the house. Some then voluntarily wear their FFP2 masks outdoors to protect against coronavirus, even when on spacious streets or in parks. How useful is that?
Claim: If you really want to protect yourself from Corona, you should also wear an FFP2 mask outside
Classification: Not used. Throughout the country, plain surgical masks or particulate filter FFP2 masks should be worn on public transportation and in stores. The former mainly protect the opposite person, the latter also protect the user.
Experts have long agreed: the risk of corona infection is much higher indoors than outdoors. However, some people also wear FFP2 masks over their nose and mouth. The reason for this is probably the fear of getting caught in a so-called aerosol cloud.
This forms in all when exhaling in front of the mouth and can contain coronavirus in infected people. When people talk to each other, these sprays are practically thrown in the face of the person you are talking to. While viruses can accumulate in unventilated rooms, exhaled air outdoors is quickly diluted and transported, according to the Society for Aerosol Research (GAeF) in Cologne.
The former president of the International Society of Aerosols in Medicine, Gerhard Scheuch, considers a brief meeting with people in the open air harmless. The amount of virus that you could catch in passing is not enough for an infection, the adviser to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recently told Deutschlandfunk Kultur. “Jogging, running, hiking, walking, I consider it absolutely harmless.”
GAeF also gives the go-ahead in its position paper: “There are almost no infections caused by aerosol particles outside.” However, caution should be exercised in groups where minimum distances are not observed and / or masks are not used – for example during longer conversations.
Until now, for the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), people who remain with an infected person for more than 15 minutes without any protection and at a distance of less than 1.5 meters are considered contact persons with a “higher risk of infection”.
When the mask can become a risk
On the other hand, wearing a nose and mouth cover for too long can be quite counterproductive: because exhaled humid air reduces the effectiveness of FFP2 masks. GAeF cautions that the material will lose its electrical charge over time. The Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) writes: “A moistened mask must be removed and changed.” The World Health Organization (WHO) expressly warns sports enthusiasts against wearing masks.
According to the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics in Kaiserslautern, there is also the risk of a so-called infection bridge between the user and the environment: with wet material, even with FFP models, for example, coughing or sneezing could throw droplets from the outer surface of the mask to the environment.
In principle, FFP2 masks are not intended to be reused from the manufacturer’s point of view. According to experts at the Münster University of Applied Sciences, who have been studying these models for months, masks that have been moistened with breath can also be reprocessed up to five times, air-drying for at least a week.
