General-purpose face mask meets requirements of new ASTM standard

摘要

A general-purpose face mask (Work Week) made from a bicomponent spunbond (Captur) has been launched by Aries of Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.The company says that the mask, which can be worn for up to 40 hours before it needs to be disposed of, provides Level-2 performance when tested by an independent third-party laboratory according to the criteria of the ASTM F3502(1)standard published by ASTM International of West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, USA, in February 2021 (2).This means that it is capable of filtering at least 50% of particles smaller than one micron from the air and demonstrates an air flow-resistance of less than or equal to approximately 49 Pa (five millimetres of water column).