Recently, research was undertaken at the Nonwovens and Advanced Materials laboratory at Texas Tech University on different facemasks that were distributed by the United States Administration during the peak COVID-19 pandemic, informs Dr Seshadri Ramkumar.
Filters and other PPE items tested the domestic manufacturing strengths of nations during COVID-19 pandemic.
Filters and protective garments belong to the advanced textiles sector which provide opportunities for manufacturers even in developed economies.
Tariff is in place for face masks in the United States to support the domestic manufacturing of these life-saving items. With the new tariff imposed by President Donald Trump to be in place on March 4, the tariff on face masks imported from China will be 35 per cent.
Recently, research was undertaken at the Nonwovens and Advanced Materials laboratory at Texas Tech University on different facemasks that were distributed by the United States Administration during the peak COVID-19 pandemic.
The research focused on understanding the filtration efficiency of different face masks including the highly efficient facepiece respirators like N95 and R95. The work utilised aerosolized particles whose sizes are comparable with those of viruses and bacteria.
Facepiece respirators provided the highest filtration efficiency giving the maximum protection to the wearer. The outcome from the study indicates that barrier protection against fine and sub-micron sized aerosolized particles can be provided using facepiece respirators.
However, in the case of larger particle sizes such as those found in smoke scenarios, perfectly fitting three-layered facemasks can be used. Results also indicated that high quality face masks can perform better than imported masks in filtering larger sized particles. Statistics from the World Health Organization show globally 14 per cent of deaths occur due to lung cancer and 9 per cent of death occur due to chronic pulmonary diseases. Comfortable face masks can help with reducing such risks and protect people.
Comfortable and well-fitting muti-layered facemasks can be used in situations of high air pollution and wild smokes as experienced recently in California and in cities such as New Delhi that witnessed severe air pollution.
Research can develop high efficiency face masks having layers of lightweight cotton nonwovens. This is possible with the availability of improved nonwoven machinery such as MicroPunch technology from DiloGroup, which was launched during ITMA 2023.
The industry should focus on research and development on comfort, reuse, and recyclability of face piece respirators.
The work appeared as a Cover Page article in the February 2025 issue of TAPPI Journal which is a peer reviewed, and an open access journal published by the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry.
Faizur Rahman and Mirza Khyum contributed to the research study.
The article titled “Filtration Performance of Face Masks and Facepiece Respirators Used During the COVID-19 Pandemic” is available at:
https://imisrise.tappi.org/TAPPI/Products/25/FEB/25FEB61.aspx
About the author:
Dr Seshadri Ramkumar is a Professor, Nonwovens & Advanced Materials Laboratory in Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA.