Medical Masks

[Yuriko]

Don't take everything here so serious It's still a forum with different opinions and experiences.

I also thought I don't get influenza because I didn't catch it since I was a child. And this year it got me pretty hard in February. Wearing a mask can definitely not pretend everything from entering your body.
Besides that, it's actually good if your body comes in contact with different kind of bacteria and viruses so your immune system knows it and can do something against it before you really get sick.

Also, don't believe everything what is printed on a package. Of course they want you to believe that. It's their marketing. Otherwise people wouldn't buy it.

Get well soon.

Yes,it's a personal protection, I guess. As well as I watch what I eat, and take good medicine.
I think I recovered today! Having sored throat, fever is such a different feeling from being normal.
Thank you so much, Anna! caring words can be a good remedy, too! (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

Also for marketing thing, it's always plus to give consumers choices! I care for their quality.

 

[Yuriko]

The weather atm changes from quite cold to warm days on a daily basis. That's prime conditions for catching a cold.
I recently caught one because of that sneaky air condition on Shinkansen trains. Had I not fallen asleep right after taking my seat I would probably have noticed the constant stream of unnecessary cold air

@Yuriko
Get well. If you are happy with your belief, wear a mask

Sorry to hear you picked up cold by sneaky air condition! That's another thing I am aware of! When I sense cold air, I wear a mask, in order not to let cold air go through my nose..that's also another thing a medical mask can do..(๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

Thank you!!! These caring words is also a good remedy! I feel pretty recovered today. Back to work!!! (^_−)−☆

 

[TheScientist]

but they are fairly effective in stopping the aerosol spray of tiny fluid droplets which people produce when they cough and sneeze

Ever worked in a Japanese office in winter? One of those traditional places where everyone is in tight rows? You get people coming in sick but they figure since they are wearing a mask, everything is OK. So they cough and sneeze without covering their mouths and guess what? It just blows out the sides onto the person next to them...

I think I recovered today!

Glad to hear it. Please understand I'm not trying to be mean to you at all. I care about people's health and behavior so I spoke very directly about the reality of the situation.

Also for marketing thing, it's always plus to give consumers choices!

It does no good to give consumers false choices. For example take a look at the ads in the low grade shukanshi for the super expensive "special" futons, the "magnetic bracelets" and healing charms. That's consumer choice but its all nonsense.

 

[Wwanderer]

Ever worked in a Japanese office in winter? One of those traditional places where everyone is in tight rows? You get people coming in sick but they figure since they are wearing a mask, everything is OK. So they cough and sneeze without covering their mouths and guess what? It just blows out the sides onto the person next to them...

As I said, they aren't perfect and don't completely prevent the spread of the germs (neither does covering your mouth and nose), and sure they can be misused (i.e., by thinking they let you safely come to work in a crowded environment while actively sick), but I'm sure that some of what the person coughing or sneezing would have put into the air ends up caught in the fabric of the mask in the scenario you describe. They aren't magic, but they help some...else they wouldn't be universally used by medical personnel working in environments where spread of infectious agents is a serious concern.

-Ww

 

[TheScientist]

As I said, they aren't perfect and don't completely prevent the spread of the germs (neither does covering your mouth and nose), and sure they can be misused (i.e., by thinking they let you safely come to work in a crowded environment while actively sick), but I'm sure that some of what the person coughing or sneezing would have put into the air ends up caught in the fabric of the mask in the scenario you describe. They aren't magic, but they help some...else they wouldn't be universally used by medical personnel working in environments where spread of infectious agents is a serious concern.

-Ww

Use in a medical environment is a given but not actually applicable to the use by the common person on the street in Japan.

In a medical environment, say a surgical theater, there are two important factors:

1. The primary purpose is to avoid contaminating an open incision, not to protect the medical staff from potential infection. Even a healthy person expels some spittle when talking or breathing through their mouths. This is not the sort of thing that should get into an open incision because even a healthy person's spittle will contain some level of germs.
2. The product in question is not the same. There actually are higher grade masks which provide more filtration than the product you can buy retail. This differs again from a medical environment where transmission or retransmission of infectious agents is in question because there again you arent just using a simple mask but a filtration mask.

Unfortunately much of the common thought is that the retail level masks have a sort of voodoo association with use in an actual medical environment without understanding the how, what or why.

Its like the "anti-tiger rock":

 

[Wwanderer]

Use in a medical environment is a given but not actually applicable to the use by the common person on the street in Japan.

In a medical environment, say a surgical theater, there are two important factors:

1. The primary purpose is to avoid contaminating an open incision, not to protect the medical staff from potential infection. Even a healthy person expels some spittle when talking or breathing through their mouths. This is not the sort of thing that should get into an open incision because even a healthy person's spittle will contain some level of germs.
2. The product in question is not the same. ...

We've probably pursued this topic about as far as seems worthwhile to me, but fwiiw, the use of masks by medical professionals is not limited to surgical theaters or to preventing infection of open incisions or wounds by any means. They are commonly used in many other situations, basically whenever there is reason for concern about airborne infectious agents or about people who are unusually vulnerable to infections for whatever reason. They are normally worn by nurses and doctors attending to newborns or the very elderly for example.

The basic point is dead simple, any mask...or even a simple piece of ordinary tissue paper held over your face...will capture some of the aerosols and the germs they carry when a person coughs, sneezes or even just exhales/inhales and so will give some measure of protection. How could they not? It doesn't have to be a high filtration mask, though those are better obviously.

I don't at all dispute your claim that many people misunderstand and greatly overestimate their effectiveness, but they simply are not the equivalent of "tiger rocks" etc. They actually do *some* good. Possibly we just have to agree to disagree on this point?

-Ww

 

[TheScientist]

Possibly we just have to agree to disagree on this point?

Fair enough. You added good points and I've said all I want or need to say and there's no point in beating a dead horse.

 

[Harlem Blade]

I like how some of the masks are advertised as being 立体 or even 超立体. How could they be anything else? Lol

 

[impish]

They don't prevent you from catching a cold. Those masks can not filter out bacteria or viruses. Not at all, even if it says so on the package.

Oh I know that, but that doesn't stop the Japanese who use them for said purpose believing that they do. I am just saying that is a large reason why Japanese wear them because they are taught it will help prevent them from catching a cold.

 

[MikeH]

I like how some of the masks are advertised as being 立体 or even 超立体. How could they be anything else? Lol

It's pretty obvious that 超立体 means four dimensional and thus helps you travel in time. That's why Japanese people wearing them are never late for a meeting.

 

[justhavefun]

We've probably pursued this topic about as far as seems worthwhile to me, but fwiiw,

Yes!! But the wearing of these masks starts in kindergarten here and when children attend elementary school, parents are constantly reminded at times throughout the year by the school, that the children must wear these masks, and on open days visiting parents to the school must also wear these masks.

So the wearing of these masks is drummed into the Japanese from a very early age.

 

[User#8628]

Yes!! But the wearing of these masks starts in kindergarten here and when children attend elementary school, parents are constantly reminded at times throughout the year by the school, that the children must wear these masks, and on open days visiting parents to the school must also wear these masks.

So the wearing of these masks is drummed into the Japanese from a very early age.

What a perfect marketings tactic!

 

[Hofmeyer]

These help with hayfever the most for me. And honestly I wore them due to social pressure. Got some serious 白い目 when I'm coughing on the train without one.

 

[TheScientist]

These help with hayfever the most for me. And honestly I wore them due to social pressure. Got some serious 白い目 when I'm coughing on the train without one.

I just cough into a handkerchief/hand towel.

 

[justhavefun]

I just cough into a handkerchief/hand towel.

Does not make it right in the eyes of the Japanese.

 

[TheScientist]

Does not make it right in the eyes of the Japanese.

I've never gotten a dirty look on the train or at an office for doing this.

 

[Torky]

from my observations, it is difficult to discern the effectiveness of masks in the public seeing how people wear it.

I've seen the occasional person cover their mouth with the mask but not cover their nose. Or how some old masks look like they've been reused so frequently that they loosely cover their face.

I personally hate wearing masks, it's hard to breathe and there have been occasions where I actually start seeing stars while assisting in ops simply because it's proper use requires you to have it quite tightly tied to your face.

 

[Smokyyoshi]

A slight tangent, but I heard that wearing masks also helps improve the condition your skin due to the moisture gathered within the mask as you exhale. No idea if this is either true or another reason to wear the mask or not.

Personally I don't like wearing the masks as I wear glasses and also it feels pretty suffocating and makes me breathe like Darth Vader!

 

[Des Esseintes]

To the reasons previously mentioned I'd had the following:
1. the male equivalent to no make-up, being unshaven
2. in winter because the wind can get very dry and it keeps the humidity, which is better for the throat/nose
3. the force of habit - in my case because I was getting sick the whole winter the first three years here and almost nothing since I started wearing a mask on a daily basis. It might be a placebo but I can't isolate the factors that explain this improvement, maybe my body just got used to its new environment, I don't know.

 

[Yuriko]

To the reasons previously mentioned I'd had the following:
1. the male equivalent to no make-up, being unshaven
2. in winter because the wind can get very dry and it keeps the humidity, which is better for the throat/nose
3. the force of habit - in my case because I was getting sick the whole winter the first three years here and almost nothing since I started wearing a mask on a daily basis. It might be a placebo but I can't isolate the factors that explain this improvement, maybe my body just got used to its new environment, I don't know.

I totally agree for No. 1 and No. 2 and No. 3...basically all what you mentioned! ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶ Glad to find there was someone, who agrees with what I think, as well. What a nice blissful comment to read, before the office work! For No.3, different climate, different environment, could cause getting sick, due to dry air, poluted air. Medical mask have an effect to protect from inhale air that can cause sickness. Inhale too cold air in Winter, air condition, or dust, those can be prevented by wearing a medical mask, that can protect from making your throat dry, or catching jerm.
Can't be helped, for those that are against and live without. They are likely to get irritated throat, sored more often and eventually catch cold, from my perspective.

 

[Karbon]

I have always been wondering whether inhaling through the mask was good for your health: you inhale small amounts of fibers of what the mask is made of
everytime you breathe. And these small fibers go to your lungs ... forever ?

 

[TokyoJoeblow]

These help with hayfever the most for me. And honestly I wore them due to social pressure. Got some serious 白い目 when I'm coughing on the train without one.

I see Japanese people coughing on the trains without a mask and without even using their hands...all the time lol.

I wear the masks due to having really bad hay fever.

 

[TheScientist]

I have always been wondering whether inhaling through the mask was good for your health: you inhale small amounts of fibers of what the mask is made of
everytime you breathe. And these small fibers go to your lungs ... forever ?

You probably breathe in more particulates from a fuzzy scarf than a mask. The mucus membranes of your mouth, nose and throat are pretty good at trapping lots of this stuff. The fibers in these masks arent such an issue. Its the really small particulates like the 2.5 pollutants that you have to worry about.

I see Japanese people coughing on the trains without a mask and without even using their hands...all the time lol.

Yeah its pretty disgusting, as is the blowout from the sides of the mask when they cough or sneeze energetically without some kind of covering.

I just wanna grab em and yell "cough into your hand towel or handkerchief, you are not an animal"

 

[TokyoJoeblow]

You probably breathe in more particulates from a fuzzy scarf than a mask. The mucus membranes of your mouth, nose and throat are pretty good at trapping lots of this stuff. The fibers in these masks arent such an issue. Its the really small particulates like the 2.5 pollutants that you have to worry about.



Yeah its pretty disgusting, as is the blowout from the sides of the mask when they cough or sneeze energetically without some kind of covering.

I just wanna grab em and yell "cough into your hand towel or handkerchief, you are not an animal"

Yes, I agree that not wearing a face mask at all is worse due to the pollution particles that travel here from China.

 

[KnocNok]

When hanging out in some Love Hotel districts and see some girls wearing the masks... I know that they are... not all of course..

I'm certain my partner was doing it for that reason, since once we were in the room, it quickly came off and went back on again just before we left. I don't mind it, but it did make it tricky to find her when we were trying to meet.
Still found it amusing I was the only gaijin standing around ( and I stress, the ONLY gaijin at that time), and she did have my pic for reference (I did see her walking around moments prior, checking her phone since that's where the pic was, but with the mask I wasn't sure)...yet she still wasn't sure until she walked up and asked me. And no, I was not wearing a mask. I'll give her points for being cautious.