The Army's Chemical Biological Center has over a century's worth of filtration knowledge -- so they put it to work to identify the best fabric for homemade masks.
The Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Chemical Biological Center in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland has equipment that very few other labs across the country have access to -- and some of that equipment precisely measures how effective a substance is at filtration. So after N95 masks, which can filter out 95 percent of particles or more, what fabric has the next highest filtration capabilities?
Four-ply microfiber cloth, the Center says. This fabric can be found in the cleaning section of most big box stores and filters out 75 percent of particles. They also found that even just a simple cloth bandana, when worn folded into multiple layers, can filter out 45 percent of particles.
The Center tested more than 300 different types of fabrics by spraying a salt aerosol at a swatch of the fabric and testing how many particles were suspended in the air on either side of the fabric swatch.
The team started out by testing fabric sent to them by organizations seeking their expertise, then broadened to testing other substances. Soldiers at the center continue to test more and more fabrics as the projected timelines for the pandemic extend -- meaning facemasks will be necessary for longer and longer stretches into the future.
“The challenge is to pick a material that effectively blocks the virus particles from going through the material while not being too hard to breathe through,” said David Caretti, chief of the Center’s Chemical Biological Protection & Decontamination Division and leader of the team testing homemade face-covering materials. “If the resistance is too high, airflow will simply bypass the covering and go around the edges.”
Or, you'll faint.
“We knew that claims about masks and face coverings were exploding all over the internet, and we wanted to make sure that any decisions about materials these agencies make will be based on proven science,” said Caretti.
Reach Elizabeth Howe on Twitter @ECBHowe.
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