What Are the Best Disposable Face Masks?

What Are the Best Disposable Face Masks?

Although about 60 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and many have already received their booster shots, the pandemic isn’t over — and neither is mask wearing. Cases among the unvaccinated and, to a lesser extent, breakthrough cases are still posing a serious threat with thousands of new cases daily in the United States. As a result, the CDC still recommends masks for all people — regardless of vaccination status — in areas with a high number of COVID cases. And while much is unknown about the new Omicron variant, its spread abroad and in the United States has prompted officials to double down on pandemic measures like increasing access to COVID tests, encouraging those eligible to get boosters, and extending the public-transportation mask mandate through mid-March.

So even if you’re fully vaccinated, you’ll likely run into situations in which masks are strongly recommended, if not required. In light of how quickly the Omicron variant is spreading, health officials now recommend upgrading from reusable cloth masks to more protective medical-grade disposable masks. “Even though this variant may be milder, it spreads much more easily (replicating 70 times faster in our airways), and in unvaccinated and high-risk individuals can still be very dangerous,” says Dr. Purvi Parikh, an immunologist with NYU Langone Health. The very best disposable face masks, of course, are N95 masks — the gold-standard pandemic masks, approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), as they filter out 95 percent of airborne particles. They’re especially good for high-risk occasions, like a plane ride or spending a long period of time in a crowded enclosed space. In terms of efficiency, N95s are closely followed by the disposable surgical masks worn by doctors and other health-care professionals, which are cleared by the FDA for meeting certain standards.

The imported KN95 mask, considered the Chinese-made equivalent to the N95, is also a popular disposable option. Yi Cui, a professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford University who co-authored a study on the efficiency of various mask materials, says that, while the certification processes for KN95 and N95 masks are “nearly identical,” many of the KN95 masks on the market today are counterfeit. There’s no way for you to tell an authentic mask from a fake, but fortunately Cui and his lab have found that even counterfeit KN95 masks can have a filtration efficiency of 75 to 80 percent. (Cui’s company, 4C Air, sells a KN95 mask that his research has shown can filter 95 percent of small particles.) The CDC has also tested a variety of KN95 masks, and you can see those results here.

Most of the rest of what you’ll see on the market are pleated disposable masks. Florida Atlantic University engineering professor Siddhartha Verma, lead author of a recent study on the efficiency of different mask materials, says the quality of these masks varies. At the start of the pandemic, consumers were mostly on their own in figuring out which ones offer the best protection. The CDC now says there are certain labels you can look for on masks that ensure they’ve been tested to meet specific standards. These labels are ASTM F3502, Workplace Performance, and Workplace Performance Plus. Otherwise, check for labeling that says the mask is made from “multiple layers of non-woven material.” The random arrangement of fibers in non-woven materials does a better job at filtering tiny particles, like bacteria and viruses, than traditional woven fabrics like cotton.