How to use "public" masks

What is a "public mask"?

Contrary to surgical masks, reserved for medical professionals, public masks do not correspond to the highest safety and protection standards.

This type of mask does not protect its user from contamination, but rather aims at protecting the environment from the user by blocking saliva particles. In short, public masks aim at protecting the public, not the user!

The biggest advantage said masks possess is that they are relatively easy to produce and use: they can be be made at home from simple cloth and can be employed multiple times.

How are they used?

In case of wrongful use, masks can become sources of contamination rather than protection. It is thus of utmost importance to respect the following rules:

• Wash your hands before putting on the mask
• Place the mask over mouth and nose
• Make sure there is no space between mask and skin
• Do not touch the outside of the mask once it has been put on
• To remove, only grip the elastic part around the ears, not the front
• If the mask needs to be removed to drink or eat, do not pull it down towards the chin, but rather remove one side of the elastic band
• Wash the mask after every use, as soon as it is taken off

Washing of the mask

The greatest strength of public masks lies in the fact that they can be reused multiple times without losing its level of efficiency.

To guarantee the elimination of the virus, masks need to be washed daily at 60° Celsius (or higher).

Wearers still need to be alert, since masks can allude to a wrong sensation of security. In fact, masks can only unfold their potential if combined with physical distancing practices and if washed on a regular basis.