HNewsWire:

The Daily Mail UK’s editors clearly aren’t looking forward to re-masking this Fall, since they ran a story this weekend headlined, “Mask study published by NIH suggests N95 Covid masks may expose wearers to dangerous levels of toxic compounds linked to seizures and cancer.”

Imagine that. Long mask syndrome.

The headline and the social media takes are a little overheated, like a person wearing a mask all day, so let’s figure out what the article really says and doesn’t say. Now remember, one of Science™’s sacred cows is the religious belief that masks are totally harmless, only a minor inconvenience at worst.

If you dare question that assumption, prepare to face the unholy wrath of the white-coat army.

The Mail’s article reported on an April study courageously published in the reckless journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, which is available on the NIH's journal aggregating website (but wasn’t originally published or endorsed by the NIH). In the study, researchers tested fourteen different N-95 masks (disposable masks) and washable cloth masks available online, and measured each mask’s TVOC levels.

TVOC is a whole category of toxic volatile organic compounds. The key words being, “toxic” and “volatile.”  TVOCs include chemicals like dimethylacetamide (DMAc) and dimethylformamide (DMF), which have been linked to liver injury and — of course — reproductive damage.

TVOCs can irritate the eyes, nose, and throat, can cause difficulty breathing and nausea, and can damage the central nervous system and organs (like the liver). Some TVOCs are carcinogenic.

The disposable masks tested included KFAD, KF94, and KN95 models, made from thermoplastics like polypropylene and polyurethane nylon. KFADs and KF94s filter 94% of particles, while KN95s filter 95% percent. These types of masks are considered the “gold standard” in disposables, short of powered respirator equipment.

Cotton masks, on the other hand, are now disfavored by Covidians, who consider them worse than useless. The CDC pushed cotton masks during the early pandemic, just cut-up an old t-shirt!, one of its earliest lies (among countless others), back while the bloated health agency was just gearing up its massive covid misinformation campaign. Much later the CDC and its army of evil talking dolls, I mean doctors, would backtrack on cotton and start insisting people purchase N-series masks, which look utterly ridiculous, like something you’re supposed to wear while sanding down a wood deck.

Anyway, the researchers found the ‘preferred’ disposable N-series masks contained up to fourteen times higher TVOC levels than did the cotton masks. The EPA recommends keeping TVOC levels below 0.5 parts per million in indoor air. The N-series sample with the highest level of TVOCs registered about 4.8 parts per million, more than eight times the recommended EPA limit.

So, brilliantly, N95 mask wearers are artificially boosting TVOC levels in their personal air to at least eight times the safe level, which explains the crisp chemical odor that mask-o-philes enjoy.

As you can imagine, all the new attention to this April study has the Branch Covidians stirred up worse than sprayed hornets. The most common complaint I’ve seen is that the researchers didn’t test all brands of disposable masks, as if they accidentally stumbled across the only brands manufactured with excess TVOC. I have to think this is a dumb interim placeholder complaint while they work on finding something better.

I won’t bother rebutting this stupid argument except to say two quick things. First, they’re right! Since the researchers didn’t test all brands of disposable masks, other brands could be even worse. And second, the stupidity of this argument actually proves the point about what happens cognitively when you wear disposable masks for too long.

Brain damage.

But keep in mind the researchers didn’t prove that anyone got injured. They tested masks, not mask wearers. What they proved is the mass produced N-series disposable masks contain toxic levels of dangerous chemicals. You can logically deduce the downstream effects though, of breathing those dangerous chemicals all day, day in, and day out.

What do you want to bet that, despite this scientific study, Covidians keep wearing their masks anyways? The article hinted at that insane rationale, by quoting a doctor who breezily explained, “all medical treatments have side effects.”

Source: coffeeandcovid