What is the difference between disposable medical masks and medical-surgical masks

1. Different standards
The difference between disposable medical masks and medical-surgical masks is mainly in terms of standards. Medical-surgical masks meet the requirements of the medical standard of YY 0469-2011 "Medical-Surgical Masks", and disposable medical masks meet the requirements of YY/T 0969-2013 Requirements for "Disposable Medical Masks". When you buy masks, you can find standard information on the outer packaging. As long as it is YY 0469-2011, it is a medical-surgical mask, and YY/T 0969-2013 is a disposable medical mask.

Medical-surgical masks are divided into three layers, an inner water absorption layer, a middle filter layer, and an outer waterproof layer. The inner layer is a skin-friendly moisture-absorbing layer (usually a spun-bond non-woven fabric, which is mainly used to absorb moisture), and the middle layer is an isolation filter layer (usually an electret-treated melt-blown cloth, which is mainly used to block bacteria, viruses and small particles). ), and the outer layer is three layers of spun-bond water repellent layer (usually spun-bond non-woven fabric, which plays the role of blocking droplets). It should be noted that the electret-treated melt-blown cloth in the middle layer is commonly known as the "heart" of the mask. After the droplets containing viruses are close to the melt-blown cloth, the droplets will be blocked, and the virus will be electrostatically adsorbed on the surface of the fiber and cannot pass through. Can play a role in blocking the spread of the virus. However, we also found that some disposable medical masks are limited by the qualification of the manufacturer, the supply of meltblown cloth raw materials, prices, production processes, and other factors. Many non-compliant disposable medical masks are made of poor-quality meltblown masks. Spray cloth or no intermediate meltblown cloth isolation layer has poor or no barrier effect on viruses, and cannot guarantee the safety of the wearer.

In the standards of medical surgical masks and disposable medical masks, the bacterial filtration efficiency is required to reach more than 95%, which means that both masks can clearly block bacteria. However, there is a significant difference. The filtration efficiency of medical surgical masks for non-oily particles with a diameter of 0.3 μm exceeds 30%, and the fluid resistance reaches 120 mmHg when splashing (droplets) such as blood and body fluids. However, disposable medical masks do not have this effect. no request. This shows that in addition to isolating bacteria, medical-surgical masks can also isolate blood, body fluid splashes, and non-oily particles, while the isolation effect of disposable medical masks on blood, body fluid splashes, and non-oily particles is unknown. The melt-blown cloth in the middle layer of medical surgical masks is electret treated, which acts as an electrostatic adsorption barrier to viruses, while the quality of the melt-blown cloth in the middle layer of disposable medical masks is poor or has no melt-blown layer, and some have not been electret Treatment, the virus blocking effect is poor.

Medical-surgical masks can be used for higher-level protection such as in medical outpatient clinics and medical staff working inwards. Disposable medical masks can only be used as general-level protection. If they are disposable medical masks without meltblown cloth, they have basically no anti-virus effect. According to Hubei Hongrui Protective Equipment Co., Ltd., the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends: medical staff working in general outpatient clinics and wards; staff in densely populated places, including hospitals, airports, railway stations, subways, ground buses, planes, trains, supermarkets Staff in relatively sealed places such as restaurants, restaurants, etc.; employees engaged in administrative management, police, security, express delivery, etc. related to the epidemic; those who are isolated at home and living with them are recommended to wear medical surgical masks.