I used to be a medical student.
So, watching people wearing mask on the telly during the haze makes me laugh.
Not that it's funny, the kind of mask is.
Surgical mask vs 3M mask.
More than a decade ago, we wore N95 mask to school due to the haze. It looks ridiculous but we had fun playing with the mask. Yes, playing.
Fast forward to recent days. Students were wearing surgical masks to school.
To me, it gives a placebo effect. Surgical mask does not help much during hazy days. But I believe it go gives the wearer the sense of protection. So students think that they are protected from the haze but the surgical mask gives little protection to the respiratory system.
N95 in the other hand is a PPE.
Once, I had a flu, but I need to clerk the patients at the ward, orthopaedic ward to be exact. I asked for a mask, and wore it until before Bedside Teaching (BST). That was when the surgeon taking us for BST asked me why do I wear the surgical mask.
"I have a flu, just a precaution as not to spread them to the poor sick patients... (considerate much?)"
And he asked me if I had Occupational Safety Health posting before. And to that, I replied yes.
Then he asked me to revise back on PPEs and remove the surgical mask from my ugly face. (ugly is a humblebrag... JK... refer to previous post)
And he added that, wearing surgical mask do nothing much in containing polluted air from spreading, what more to say protect us. Well, in the case of bird flu, I believe that the infected droplets/aerosols are bigger than smoke particles.
And here's a link to
https://www.moh.gov.sg/content/moh_web/home/pressRoom/Current_Issues/2014/haze/faq--use-of-masks-and-availability-of-masks.html
Well, my intention on wearing surgical mask that day is based on logic. I had a flu. So yes, wearing a surgical mask could help. Maybe doctors/surgeons are as knowledgeable as we thought they are...
Ciao.
No comments:
Post a Comment