Markets for Air Filters, Controls and Masks Changing Rapidly

Experts Call on Biden and OSHA to Require Masks With the New Level 2 80% Efficiency Rating and for a CDC Consumer Mandate as Well

New ASTM Standards to be Discussed on March 2 INDA Webinar

Freudenberg Receives FDA Clearance for Surgical Masks

Lydall Urges Consumers to Buy ASTM-Certified and Buy American-Made


Handanhy Supplies Melt Blown Media and Masks Worldwide

Mann + Hummel Room Air Purifier Provides Effective Protection From Viruses in Classrooms


Capture Virus and Dust at the  Source - Brake Filter Example

It will Take Years to Vanquish COVID-19

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Markets for Air Filters, Controls and Masks Changing Rapidly

New ASTM mask standards published this week will very likely result in the demise of a $15  billion U.S. market for cloth masks and help create an even larger market for masks with efficient filter media.

The pandemic is changing the entire market for air filters, monitoring /controls as well as masks.  To date the impact has been a nationalistic trend but long term the result will be the opposite.

For example the U.S. will be best served by ramping up efficient masks capacity now and then subsidizing exports in future years when the domestic needs subside.

The Chinese economy is booming due to success in minimizing the pandemic impact. Some of the other countries of the world will not achieve herd immunity for years and will be subjected to more deadly variants of the virus. Therefore the  markets for filters, monitoring/controls, and masks will continue to be significantly impacted.

 

The near term opportunity for efficient masks will greatly exceed any other filter market.  Suppliers need to carefully assess all the impacts and to be proactive.

Many of the suppliers are international. They have a unique opportunity to help shape the world markets.  The McIlvaine Company with its extensive international research and analysis  provides strategic support for suppliers in this fast moving market.

For more information on the strategic support services contact Bob McIlvaine at 847 226 2391 or rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com.

 

Experts Call on Biden and OSHA to Require Masks With the New Level 2 80% Efficiency Rating and for a CDC Consumer Mandate as Well

Several members of President Joe Biden's former coronavirus advisory board are urging his administration to more widely recommend and mandate the use of N95 masks, citing a "pressing and urgent need for action" driven by the threat of new coronavirus variants.

In a memo to Biden's top coronavirus advisers obtained by CNN, a dozen health and safety experts -- including four members of Biden's former advisory board -- called on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to "recommend and require the use of respiratory protection, such as N95 FFRs (filtering facepiece respirators), to protect all workers at high risk of exposure and infection."

They also urged the CDC to adopt the first national consumer mask standard and urged the administration to "coordinate a national effort" to distribute National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health-certified respirators and ASTM barrier face coverings to workers in need and use the Defense Production Act to ramp up mask production.

The memo, which is addressed to Biden's coronavirus czar Jeff Zients, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and Dr. Anthony Fauci, came just days after the CDC updated its guidance on face masks. The new guidance for the first time heralded the benefits of double-masking but maintained a recommendation against the use of N95 masks "in non-healthcare settings," citing a shortage of N95s.

But the memo's signatories -- including former Biden advisers Rick Bright, Dr. Celine Gounder, Dr. David Michaels and Michael Osterholm -- say there are now millions of N95 masks "available and sitting in warehouses," and are urging the administration to go further.

"While COVID-19 infections and deaths have started to decline in recent weeks, they remain at a very high level and, unless strengthened precautionary measures are implemented, the new variants will likely bring an explosion in new infections," the experts write in the memo. "Action is needed to better protect workers and the public against inhalation exposure to the virus."

Bright, Gounder, Michaels and Osterholm were part of Biden's 16-member coronavirus advisory board, which Biden assembled during the transition to advise him on the pandemic and help him craft a response strategy. The board was dissolved once Biden was inaugurated and its three co-chairs joined the administration.

Bright previously headed the Department of Health and Human Services' biotechnology research arm before becoming a whistleblower in the early months of the Trump administration's coronavirus response. Michaels is an epidemiologist who headed OSHA in the Obama administration. Gounder and Michaels are both infectious disease experts.

The former Biden advisers were joined in writing the memo by leading public health and occupational safety experts, including Lisa Brosseau, Dr. Lynn Goldman, Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka, Linsey Marr, Dr. Donald Milton, Kimberly Prather, Dr. Robert Schooley and Peg Seminario.

In a statement responding to the letter, the CDC touted the effectiveness of "properly worn ... well-fitting cloth masks" and pointed to a CDC study showing that "exposure to aerosol particles was reduced by more than 95%" when double-masking or wearing a tightly-fitting surgical mask.

"For reasons supported by science, comfort, costs, and practicality, CDC does not recommend the use of N95 respirators for protection against COVID-19 by the general public," the CDC said in a statement, though it did not address the question of recommending N95 masks to high-risk workers.

The memo follows a similar letter from some Democratic lawmakers sent on February 1, which called on Biden to increase the supply and availability of higher quality masks and encourage the education of the public on which masks are most effective.

The latest memo urges the administration to follow the example of several European countries like Germany and France, which have mandated the use of N95-style masks and higher-quality masks in workplaces and public places.

The authors also called on the CDC to adopt the first national consumer mask standard to protect American workers and general public established by ASTM, an international technical standards organization. That standard outlines minimum fit, design, performance and testing requirements for consumer face masks and will soon allow the public to be able to choose between two levels of mask protection seen on package labeling.

The letter also asks OSHA to utilize the ASTM standard and offer high-performing face masks with at least 80% filtration efficacy to non-health care workers at lower exposure risks.

While the memo's authors praised the administration's coronavirus response plan, the memo is one of the first signs of outside pressure urging the White House to do more amid the threat of new, more transmissible coronavirus variants.

In the memo, the experts urge the administration to rescind recommendations advising healthcare workers not involved in direct patient care and high-risk workers like those in meat plants to only wear face coverings or surgical masks -- rather than N95s.

In a nod to Biden's focus on equity in his coronavirus response, the authors also noted that the risks of transmission are especially acute for people of color.

"The failure to address inhalation exposure to SARS-CoV-2 continues to put workers and the public at serious risk of infection, particularly people of color, many of whom work on the front lines in essential jobs and have suffered -- and continue to suffer -- the greatest impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic," the memo says.

https://www.weny.com/story/43361770/former-biden-coronavirus-advisers-push-white-house-to-more-widely-recommend-use-of-n95-masks

 

New ASTM Standards to be Discussed on March 2 INDA Webinar

INDA, the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, announced a webinar date of Tuesday, March 2, at 11 a.m. EST to discuss the new ASTM F3502-21 Standard Specification for Barrier Face Coverings launched by ASTM on February 15.  This standard establishes for the first time a set of test methods that evaluate the filter, fit and leakage performance of barrier face coverings, commonly referred to as “face masks” worn by the general public, and not to be confused with respirators nor medical or surgical masks. The webinar will be presented by respiratory expert, Jeff Stull, vice chair of the ASTM Committee that wrote the standard, and Dave Rousse, INDA president.  It will provide a detailed review of the new ASTM standard and the test methods it entails and the impact on the entire supply chain of facemask production. Details and registration are available here: www.inda.org/inda-webinars

The purpose of guidance for the general public to wear face masks is to control the spread of viruses. Face masks made to this new ASTM standard will also provide a degree of particulate filtration to reduce the amount of inhaled particulate matter.

The goal of the standard is to assist consumers in making informed decisions about face masks given the vast array of products currently for sale, including various patterns promoted for homemade manufacture using common textile materials. Prior to the ASTM standard, no standard test method existed which allowed comparisons among different products nor were there any minimum performance requirements. This new standard provides these performance requirements as well as a set of specifications, guidelines and expectations for face mask manufacturers and media suppliers.

“We approached NIOSH last year on developing a general public face mask standard that could use nonwoven materials beyond meltblown that still deliver an effective level of filtration, as there was so much demand for the N95 respirators and masks once the Asian supply chain was cut off,” said Dave Rousse, INDA president. “We were delighted to get a positive response from Jon Szalajda, NIOSH deputy director, National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, who is also the chair of the ASTM Committee dealing with standards in this area.”

“This was a worthwhile project that we worked through the ASTM process in record time,” Szalajda said. “It should provide an important benefit in the fight against COVID-19 spread by reducing consumer confusion about what works and what does not and assisting manufacturers in making effective products.”

“The development of this standard has been followed by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA),” Rousse said, “as it considers the January 21 Presidential Executive Order on whether any emergency temporary standards with respect to masks in the workplace are necessary to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread, and if so, to issue them by March 15. This would have a significant and rapid impact on the facemask industry. In our March 2 webinar, we will review all of these developments and provide needed information and guidance to the suppliers, converters and marketers in this important sector.”

This webinar on March 2 will be in addition to the INDA Webinar Series already scheduled for March 16, March 25 and April 6. For information on the full webinar series, visit www.inda.org/inda-webinars.

 

Freudenberg Receives FDA Clearance for Surgical Masks

ASTM Level 3 surgical masks manufactured by Freudenberg Performance Materials recently received 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The surgical masks are intended for use by healthcare personnel to protect both the patient and them from transfer of microorganisms, body fluids and particulate material.  The face masks are intended for use in infection control practices to reduce the potential exposure to blood and body fluids. 
 
For the U.S. market, Freudenberg Performance Materials is now providing FDA cleared surgical masks meeting the Level 3 standard of the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM). The ASTM Level 3 surgical mask is for use in conditions where there is a high risk of fluid and spray of aerosol transmission, such as operating procedures. The masks are a single use, disposable device provided non-sterile.  

Surgical masks by Freudenberg were tested for performance in five areas: fluid resistance, differential pressure, particulate efficiency, bacterial filtration efficiency and flammability. Upon completion of testing, the surgical masks consistently met ASTM Level 3 criteria in all five performance test areas. Bacterial and particle filtration efficiency test results were greater than 99%.

“This was a great accomplishment for our team. It is a milestone that supports our commitment to continue manufacturing local. Meeting the ASTM Level 3 standard helps us in our goal to not only keep our healthcare workers safe, but also ensure they have a steady, reliable PPE supply so the shortages that happened at the beginning of the pandemic don’t happen again,” says Alicen Pittenger, Head of Sales – North America – Global Healthcare Division, Freudenberg.
 
The Durham, NC site of Freudenberg Performance Materials began mask production in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Working closely with local partners, Freudenberg is also aiming to prevent future PPE supply shortages by establishing long-term face mask production for the US market. The site manufactures surgical masks and community masks and is pursuing NIOSH N95 respirator certification.

 

 

Lydall Urges Consumers to Buy ASTM-Certified and Buy American-Made

ASTM International has introduced new certification standards for General Barrier Face Coverings, giving the general public greater awareness and control over the level of protection provided by cloth face masks. ASTM Level 1 Face Coverings block at least 20% of particles 0.3 micron and larger (including bacteria and many viruses), while ASTM Level 2 Face Coverings block at least 50% of these particles.

In response to these new standards, Sara Greenstein, President & CEO of Lydall, Inc., provided the following statement:

“Lydall and our team of filtration and materials science experts were honored to work alongside ASTM International, the CDC, INDA and our fellow industry colleagues in this joint effort to better educate consumers about the level of protection face masks provide against threats like COVID-19. Since the onset of the pandemic, manufacturers all over the world have stepped up to accelerate production of personal protective equipment and the materials they require but demand still heavily outweighs supply. For that reason, it remains critically important that we right-size our face masks for our level of risk – and in order to do that, we must understand exactly how much protection masks offer. N95 respirators and surgical masks that contain fine fiber meltblown filtration media remain the gold standard, but these new standards provide much-needed guidance for a broader range of more widely available masks. The message is clear: by buying ASTM-certified and buying American-made, consumers can have clarity and confidence in the level of defense their masks deliver against the virus.”

 

 

Handanhy Supplies Melt Blown Media and Masks Worldwide  

Handanhy is an integrated enterprise which includes the research and development, production and sale of filtration media, respirators and coveralls. The company was founded in 1988

Heng Yong Filtration Material Factory was built in Yongnian County starting with  only two PP filtration machines.  Today the company has broad portfolio consisting of

·          Air Filtration Media

·          Mask & Respirator

·          Protective Clothing

The company has 800 employees and 100,000 m2 of factory space.

More than 80% of products are exported, Customers are spread all over the globe: Britain, France, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Greece, America, Canada, Russia, Iran, Japan, Ireland, France, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Chile, Mexico, Australia, Spain, Norway, Netherlands, Estonia and others.

The company has been certified by ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004.

The masks have been validated for  EN 149:2001+A1:2009 (notified by BSI-CE 0086) and AS/NZS 1716:2003 (certified by SAI Global, Australia). 

The company specializes in various types of filter media, such as polypropylene filter media, polyester filter media and composite filter media. Process technologies include melt-blown, needle-punched and laminated composites (adhesive, ultrasonic, etc.). The products are widely applied in industrial air filtration; vacuum cleaner filtration; vehicle cabin filtration; and protective respirators and clothing.

The company also makes surgical masks and respirators. Disposable Particulate Respirators approved to EN149:2001+A1:2009 are designed to reduce the wearer’s exposure to airborne particles.

 

Mann + Hummel Room Air Purifier Provides Effective Protection From Viruses in Classrooms

 

M+H introduced a new room air purifier in December. The HEPA H14 filters (individually tested according to ISO 29463 & EN 1822) installed in the two new mobile and stationary high-performance room air purifiers, OurAir TK 850 and OurAir SQ 2500, are capable of reliably filtering more than 99.995 percent of viruses, bacteria and micro-organisms from the air. As such, they help to minimize the risk of infection in internal spaces. The devices are modern in their design, and thanks to the innovative ePTFE medium, they operate at high performance with particularly low noise levels. This allows infectious virus particles such as SARS-CoV-2, which can attach themselves to aerosols, to be almost completely filtered out.

Investigation of the reduction of the aerosol level by using the OurAir SQ 2500 was conducted in a class room and measurement taken at two locations.

 

Significant equal reduction of the aerosol levels at both measuring points F1 and F2  occurred after switching on the indoor air purifier (The particle concentration at F2 decreases slightly faster than at F1) 50% after 4 min. / 90% after 15 min. Operation below the designed filter rate (~ 5 h-1 ) results in a slower reduction.

 

Mann + Hummel also supplies masks. Students can be protected by masks in addition to the room air purifier in the classroom.  In the lunchroom, the room air purifier with more substantial air flow and laminar direction can compensate for mask removal to eat. 

The company also has the qLair division which can provide the monitoring and controls to insure a safe bubble within a school or restaurant.

Capture Virus and Dust at the  Source - Brake Filter Example

Mann + Hummel is taking a holistic approach to reducing indoor and outdoor air pollution.  The general principle is to eliminate the pollution at the source or as close to the source as possible.  A good example of innovative source control is the brake particle filter described below. This filter captures dust from braking with a minimal amount of air.  Filter cubes located at traffic intersections capture pollutants relatively close to the source. The M+ H air purifiers can be used to capture viruses in local areas of either high virus concentration or where masks are impractical e.g. restaurants.

M+H has acquired a mask company (Purar).  In the holistic approach people have to be viewed as a major source.  The fact that inefficient cloth masks are tolerated when 70 times more virus can be captured by a tight fitting efficient mask is like an industrial dust collection system where there is no dust hood for the major source. So in all cases it pays to capture contaminants at the source if possible. Here are the details on the brake filter

Fine dust is a danger to human health. However, the fine dust is not only caused by exhaust emissions: each braking action releases particles. The new brake dust particle filter from MANN+HUMMEL will retain these emissions directly at the source.

As the level of air pollution worldwide is on the rise, the awareness of risks and consequences to human health is also increasing. Many cities plagued by contaminated air are constantly discussing the causes and possible solutions. Particles with a diameter of less than 10 micrometers (PM₁₀) are particularly dangerous because they can penetrate pulmonary alveoli. Smaller particles than that can even directly enter the blood and cause heart disease and respiratory illnesses.

The focus of current legislation is concentrated on the exhaust emissions of the combustion engine. Other sources of fine dust such as the fine dust generated by brake abrasion have up to now been disregarded to a great extent. In Germany approximately 10,000 tons of brake dust particles are created every year. Measurements on test benches show that more than 90% of this consists of particles with a diameter smaller than 0.55 micrometers. The fine dust pollution is especially high at busy road junctions because at such locations many braking actions are required. But longer visits to underground railway stations can also be harmful to health. Measurements in the London underground system, for example, have registered air pollution with inhalable particles in the range of 500 to 1,120 micrograms per cubic meter. The daily limit specified by the European Union of 50 micrograms per cubic meter is therefore greatly exceeded. But it is not only vehicles with a combustion engine or trains which create the fine dust. In electric and fuel cell cars with no exhaust emissions and stationary engines braking actions also take place which result in the generation of dangerous brake dust.

MANN+HUMMEL has developed a new solution for all of these applications in the form of the brake dust particle filter. Located close to the brake and therefore the source, the filter retains the particles which are the result of mechanical abrasion on the brake. The filter consists of a robust housing which is positioned directly in continuation to the brake caliper and captures particles created in the braking process. The new development can be fitted to any existing installation space and can be adapted to different brake sizes and concepts.

One of the first field tests for the brake dust particle filter was made in the ‘fine dust eater’ vehicles from MANN+HUMMEL. These vehicles have been on the road for a number of months. Their mission is to retain more fine dust than the vehicles generate themselves. To make this a success, the ‘fine dust eater’ vehicles are equipped with three different types of filter systems: a fine dust particle filter, a new type of NO₂ fine dust combi filter for the cabin and a brake dust particle filter. For MANN+HUMMEL this is a further step towards implementation of the vision zero emissions.

 

It will Take Years to Vanquish COVID-19

It will take years, not months, to gain the upper hand in the coronavirus pandemic — and it will require thinking well beyond our borders, says Dr. Larry Brilliant.

The 76-year-old Bay Area epidemiologist, who has worked to eradicate smallpox, polio and co-founded the Seva Foundation in Berkeley to combat blindness, has a unique perspective on the subject.

For years, Brilliant warned of a pandemic on the scale of the one we are living through. He even served as the senior technical adviser on the 2011 motion picture “Contagion,” filmed partly at the San Francisco 49ers old stadium, Candlestick Park — during which time he presciently predicted that epidemiologists would become rock stars and stadiums would become mass vaccination sites.

As the CEO of Pandefense Advisory, Brilliant has assisted in the global response to the coronavirus crisis over the past year. He has a broader view of the pandemic than most public health leaders and scientists, having invested his life’s work in anticipation of this very moment.

He is encouraged by dropping case counts, the rapid development and rollout of innovative new vaccines, the new science-driven leadership in the White House. But Brilliant is not here to reassure anyone that this will all be over soon.

“I think there’s a lot of good happening,” he said, speaking to The Chronicle by phone from his home in Mill Valley in a rare interview Friday. “I would prefer to think that things will get better, but the scientist in me worries we’re too perilously close to things going the other way.”

Brilliant, who moved to San Francisco in 1967 from his native Detroit, clearly remembers how he felt the moment he realized, in January 2020, that his predictions were about to come true. He was in a meeting with top epidemiologists and public health policy experts from around the world at the Flood Building in San Francisco when an alarming call came in. The Thai Health Ministry had identified a case of the novel coronavirus at one of its airports.

“Those of us who had been through MERS and SARS, we looked at each other and said, ‘This is going to really bad,’” Brilliant said. “We knew then that this was going to happen.”

As the first leader of Google’s philanthropy division, Brilliant is connected with tech leaders and public health officials worldwide. But in the former administration, he found his efforts stymied, and he was forced to watch from the sidelines as every opportunity to get the pandemic under control was ignored, dismissed and disparaged.

He feels renewed optimism with President Biden in charge, especially with a new federal COVID-19 response team that includes Andy Slavitt, the former acting chief of Medicare and Medicaid under the Obama administration; Vivek Murthy, the former U.S. surgeon general; and David Kessler, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

“I think it’s going to be a very different attitude,” Brilliant said, praising Biden’s swift action in securing enough vaccine to deliver doses to every American by the end of the summer.

“We’ve got enough vaccine on order to vaccinate every man, woman and child in the United States,” he said. “We also have enough vaccine to help the rest of the world, which is important.”

He cautioned, however, that it will take a global effort to truly make an impact, especially to head off increasingly aggressive variants of the virus that could elude testing and vaccines.

Even if the United States gets most people vaccinated, it won’t be enough, he said: “Until everybody in the world is safe, no one is safe.”

The virus does not recognize borders, and variants such as those discovered in the U.K., Brazil and South Africa will continue to emerge until everyone is vaccinated, he predicted.

Brilliant, a longtime Grateful Dead doctor, laments that half the country still believes in an America First policy, and that kind of nationalism will create an “uphill battle” in the quest to wipe out the pandemic.

While he is confident that the vaccines in production now will be suitable to combat the variants in circulation, that picture could rapidly change.

“Today’s vaccines are good enough to stop today’s variants,” Brilliant said. “The problem is tomorrow’s variants. We’re just on the cusp.”

He thinks that the global picture of the pandemic is much more dire than the numbers show. There have been more than 100 million cases of COVID-19 reported since the start of the pandemic, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. Brilliant predicts the actual number of cases will top a billion, “without question.”

As government leaders rush to reopen the economy and schools while the pandemic continues to rage Brilliant urges caution.

“People are beginning to think, ‘Well, I can go hug my granddaughter,” he said, noting he rarely ventures out of the home he shares with his wife, Girija Brilliant. “The psychological letdowns people will have are going to be tremendous.”

He said the three surges we experienced last year may not have been surges at all but a portent of what is to come globally.

“There’s a nonzero probability that we’ll look back and all those three bumps will all together just be the first wave, and what’s coming next could be worse,” he said. “I think the future is really complicated.”