Coronavirus
Technology Solutions
A $450 Billion Attractive Mask Market
Airinum Supplies Masks with Valves
Totobobo Masks have Replaceable Filters Housekeeping Workers at Hospitals at High Risk Repurposed Shipping Containers Converted to Mobile ICU Pods
FDA Chief Calls for High-Quality Masks for
Everyone
Heated Mask Developed by MIT Researchers
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A $450 Billion Attractive Mask Market
In the Alert yesterday we introduced the term
CATE mask.
This describes a mask which is
comfortable, attractive, tight fitting and
efficient.
For a number of reasons we predict that
the market share for these masks will exceed 60%
of the total.
One reason is that all these desirable
features are now available at reasonable cost.
As can be seen in the following chart
attractiveness becomes an increasingly important
factor as the viral load diminishes
Attractiveness will be as important as other
parameters because the cost of this feature is
reasonable. To further probe the influence of
attractiveness we need to assess both the cost
and interest of the purchaser.
Cost:
The incremental cost increase is a
function of the attractiveness definition. There
are extremes from masks focused on being very
fashionable to those which look slightly more
attractive than a plain white cloth mask. As
pointed out below when rock stars switched from
white to black masks it created a big demand for
black masks.
A simple color change would cost less than 1
cent per wearing. Other features might be more
costly. Most other fashion upgrades would only
add a few cents at most per wearing. Those
fashion prejudices based on overall mask design
will be important. If people see the two
cartridge design as unattractive then that would
be hard for those designers to overcome. On the
other hand consider the picture below of the two
young girls in Totobobo two cartridge masks.
Many would consider these masks attractive.
Olivia (left) is 7 and Kalena (right) is 6. They
love how the Totobobo masks look fashionable
The power of attractiveness does depend on
activity. A woman working on the meat processing
line will think differently about mask
attractiveness than when she goes
to church. On the other hand we should
not be too quick to eliminate the power of
attractiveness even on a meat processing line.
Some of the mask makers who have been supplying
the air pollution related markets are experts on
attractiveness and even use terms such as
“style”. Wendover Brown, CEO of Vogmask said “I
do think that health and style are going to be
intricately connected going forward. You can
already see this happening.” Vogmask has
produced masks for Manish Arora through a
licensing agreement and the brand Face Slap.
VOX
wrote an article in 2019 after the Camp fire In
California. They published the above picture and
singled out, Vogmask who they said has all but
cornered the market with its brightly colored
designs. And abroad, companies like Airpop and
Respro are entering the fold, hoping to provide
an attractive alternative to the standard white
painter’s mask. But how does a new accessory
category take off — especially one that covers a
good portion of a wearer’s face?”
Some parts of the world already have a huge head
start here. People in Korea, Japan, and parts of
China regularly wear what are often called
“courtesy masks” — surgical masks worn to
prevent their germs from infecting others. “It’s
considered a polite thing to wear if you’re
sick,” says Christina Xu, a researcher who
studies cultural trends in the US and China. Xu
points out in these Asian countries, courtesy
masks have been common enough that pop stars
even influence the styles — when
bands started wearing black masks instead of the
usual white ones, the trend spread to the masses.
We previously
estimated a yearly mask cost of $50 to
$500 per person. If three billion people wear
masks with half spending only $50/year each the
cost would be $675 billion.
Does this sound like an impossibly high number?
Keep in mind the
size of the sports footwear industry. The
market in the United States was valued at around
$37.5 billion in 2019 and forecast to reach
nearly $70 billion in 2025. A good argument can
be made that Americans will be willing to spend
more on CATE masks than on sports footwear.
Hoodies are another example. The U.S. apparel
market is $250 billion per year. Hoodies like
masks can be uncomfortable in hot weather. They
cover part of the face and unlike masks have
very little value outside attractiveness for
young people. Parents cannot understand why
their children will wear only hoodies in cold
weather but also wear them in hot weather. The
answer is apparently “style”.
The hoodie example is illuminating. What mask
makers need to do is make CATE masks as stylish
in the public mind as are hoodies or many other
non-utilitarian clothing items.
Airinum says the key to protection is in the
mask’s filter. When you breathe with the mask
on, air passes through five important layers of
protection before it reaches your lungs. Each
layer has a different density in order to filter
particles of different sizes. The multi-layer
filter technology is tested at the RISE R&D
center in Sweden, one of the world’s most
advanced filter laboratories, and consists of
the following layers:
Outside PP Layer -
Outside filter wrapping in a durable finish
The filter is replaceable and lasts for about
100 hours.
The key to effective protection for an air mask
is both the filter capability, and the
fit-factor. The mask needs to be both
comfortable to wear and also sealed around the
edges to ensure that air only travels through
the filter. With adjustable components, the
Urban Air Mask is designed to offer a perfect
fit for most face shapes and is engineered with:
• Adjustable ear loops to create a personalized
fit around the face.
To further improve the fit of the mask and stop
air from sneaking in around the edges, each
filter is equipped with a 3D memory nose-foam
and an adjustable nose clip that gives the mask
minimal air leakage, regardless of one's face
shape.
The Buffalo
Red and black mask is available from the
website for $95. Replacement filters are $8.
The website briefly mentions COVID but there is
no informaiton about the used of non valved
masks.
Totobobo supplies masks fitted with replaceable
filters (F92, F94, F96, or PRO99) which provide
two-way high efficiency filtration of viruses,
bacteria, and particulate matter.
These filters are also engineered to accommodate
a low airflow resistance to help users breathe
easily in them. The remainder of the Totobobo
mask contains a soft, transparent, and
silver-embedded plastic designed to resist viral
and bacterial growth.
Altogether, this combination of features built
into the Totobobo mask and filters provides
users with comfortable long-term use and optimal
safety for themselves and those around them.
Many users reported they have been using their
Totobobo mask for two years or longer on a
regular basis. This easily translates to 600
times of uses. If the mask is well maintained,
some few users reported using the same mask for
five years+.
For protection against non-contagious pollution,
such as traffic pollution, dust or fine
particles, there is no need to disinfect the
mask every time. Totobobo mask contains silver
ion, an anti-virus agent. This active agent
limits the growth and slowly kills the bacteria
or viruses chance on its surface. For most
non-contagious situations, it is safe to reuse
the mask after 24 hours of leaving it in a clean
environment. However in a situation that the
mask may be contaminated with contagious viruses
or bacteria, or when using it in critical areas
in a clinic, it is necessary to disinfect the
mask before it can be reused.
The travel set sells for $55. With this
transparent and reusable mask it is easy to
check the seal. Comfortable 3D design, keeps the
filter away from the lips for easy breathing.
The mask can be Re-Shaped to better fit
individual face shape.
Housekeeping
Workers at Hospitals at High Risk SARS-CoV-2 viral carriage and seroprevalence among hospital workers may vary by job and by ethnicity, a UK study suggests. Researchers collected nasopharyngeal swabs and venous blood samples from 545 asymptomatic healthcare workers at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust in April 2020 to test for SARS-CoV-2 RNA and anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein antibodies. Across the entire study population, the point prevalence of viral carriage was 2.4% and the overall seroprevalence of antibodies was 24.4%. Seroprevalence was highest among workers in housekeeping (34.5%), followed by acute medicine (33.3%), and general internal medicine (30.3%). Seroprevalence was lowest among workers in intensive care units (14.8%), emergency medicine (13.3%), and general surgery (13%). Compared to intensive care workers, the relative risk of seropositivity was more than twice as high for workers in housekeeping (RR 2.34), acute medicine (RR 2.25), and general internal medicine (RR 2.05), researchers report in Thorax. "All health care workers in the hospital are at increased risk of COVID-19 infection, not just those that are patient facing, and all health care workers should closely follow advice and training on social distancing, hand washing and personal protective equipment (PPE)," said senior study author Dr. Alex Richter of the University of Birmingham. Our study would support routine asymptomatic testing of hospital staff in order to promptly isolate staff to try and interrupt transmission of the virus within the health care environment," Dr. Richter. For the study, all staffs who
worked shifts over a 24-hour period in April
2020, about one month after the UK went into
lockdown, were asked to report any illnesses or
symptoms consistent with COVID-19 that they had
had in the previous four months and consent to
testing for the virus and for antibodies. A total of 13 out of 545 staff with no symptoms tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, and 5 of these people (38%) subsequently developed COVID-19 symptoms. In addition, 136 (26%) of 516 people with serum samples available reported prior symptoms consistent with COVID-19 infection. While 37% of people who reported prior symptoms tested positive for antibodies, so did 17% of staff who didn't report prior symptoms. Compared to white health care
workers, people who were Black, Asian, and of
minority ethnic groups were almost twice as
likely to be seropositive as white people (odds
ratio 1.92). One limitation of the study is that
researchers were unable to determine the
prevalence of seropositivitiy for each of these
nonwhite racial and ethnic groups separately. Another limitation of the study is that participation was voluntary, and it's possible that this introduced bias into the cohort that did opt to enroll, the authors note. Even so, the results
highlight variation in COVID-19 risk across
different hospital settings and jobs and
underscore the importance of infection control
policies that extend to all workers not just
clinicians who interact with patients, said Dr.
Margaret Ip, of the department of microbiology
and faculty of medicine at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong.
Created in March 2020 in response to the spread
of COVID-19, which led to a shortage of ICUs in
many countries, CURA converts shipping
containers into fully outfitted isolation wards
where medical professionals can treat patients
with the assurance of safety. With all the
necessary medical equipment mounted inside, a
CURA pod can be installed within hours and be
employed in more complex configurations to
accommodate more patients. The pods not only
make cities more sustainable and resilient, they
also embrace the principles of circular economy
by repurposing shipping containers and reducing
waste.
CURA is currently working to transition the ICU
pods into their second phase, where they can be
deployed on a larger scale in Boston, Mumbai,
Mombasa and other locations where COVID-19 has
caused substantial deaths.
The partners for Italy include :
CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, Italo Rota, Humanitas
Research Hospital, Policlinico di Milano,
Jacobs, MIT Senseable City Lab, Studio FM Milano,
Squint/Opera, IEC Engineering, TeamRubicon,
Projema, Ospedale Cottolengo, Turin, Philips,
Gruppo Boero, Patricia Marsá, Seluxit & Onomondo,
Unicredit, The World Economic Forum.
FDA Chief Calls for
High-Quality Masks for Everyone
Recent FDA chief Dr. Scott Gottlieb argued that
he'd "rather try to get everyone in masks" and
"try to get them in high-quality masks because
we know it's going to slow down the
transmission." Against this backdrop, a new study published in Risk Analysis, "Reinventing cloth masks in the face of pandemics," by Stephen Salter, P.Eng., describes how Effective Fiber Mask Programs (EFMPs) can help communities find a balance between the economy and curbing community spread.
A separate study by Stadnytskyi, et al.
estimates that one minute of loud speaking
generates at least 1,000 virion-containing
droplets that remain airborne for more than
eight minutes. If everyone uses effective masks,
the benefit is compounded because each person's
mask reduces the number of particles they
transmit, and also the number of particles they
inhale.
The new study suggests that the effectiveness of
cloth masks can be improved by using a non-woven
material such as cotton batting. Increasing the
surface area of fibers exposed to moving air
improves filtering efficiency because the
smaller particles are absorbed onto the fibers.
In May and June of 2020, seventeen handmade
cotton batting masks underwent 35 tests using
commercial quantitative fit testing equipment to
determine their filtering effectiveness. The
results showed average filtering effectiveness
of 76 to 90 percent against aerosol particles.
If an Effective Fiber Mask (EFM) costs $6 and
can be used 30 times for four hours each, the
cost per hour of use would be $0.05. Another
study, by Abaluck et al., estimated the value of
cloth masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, and
concluded, "...the benefits of each additional
cloth mask worn by the public are conservatively
in the $3,000-$6,000 range due to their impact
in slowing the spread of the virus." This
cost-benefit ratio suggests governments should
consider subsidizing the cost of EFMs for the
public.
Governments can take a leadership role by
rapidly implementing EFMPs to help reduce
transmission of COVID-19, according to Salter.
To implement an EFMP, a government would set
performance standards for cloth masks, invite
manufacturers to submit their mask designs for
testing, allow manufacturers to label their
approved designs, ask or require the public to
wear only approved cloth masks, educate the
public to use face masks correctly, and
encourage manufacturers to continuously improve
their designs.
"I am confident Effective Fiber Masks can play
an important role in reducing the risk of
transmission of COVID-19," states Salter. "Every
country can rapidly implement an Effective Fiber
Mask Program, and I hope leaders will act
quickly to reduce suffering in this way."
MIT researchers aim to build masks that
incorporate a heated copper mesh. As the person
wearing the mask breathes in and out, air flows
repeatedly across the mesh, and any viral
particles in the air are slowed and inactivated
by the mesh and high temperatures. Such a mask
could be useful for health care professionals,
the researchers say, as well as members of the
public in situations where social distancing
would be difficult to achieve, such as a crowded
bus.
Strano and Buongiorno started exploring concepts
for new types of face masks in March, shortly
after MIT ramped down on-campus research
operations. They began by digging through
existing scientific reports on different types
of masks and found no masks that are designed
primarily to kill viruses by heating. |