Guide for making a textile filtration mask When these masks are being made by volunteers or in non-healthcare manufacturing facilities, those constructing the masksmust adhere to the principles of enhanced hand hygiene and social distancing as recommended by the CDC.
This work is the result of a collaboration of experienced sewing enthusiasts, surgeons, infectious disease doctors, nurses, engineers,volunteers, and basic scientists from South Texas. The original mask design was based on a design from the Easy to Sew YouTube Channel.
Iterative design changes driven by input from subject matter experts increased the performance of the original design. This process improved the masks’ permeability characteristics and reduced wicking across the bridge of the nose and bottom of themask.
These masks are untested in clinical and standardized laboratory settings such as the FDA, ASTM or NIOSH, and ideallyshould only be used in low risk settings. We believe the design improves on the material limitations of a traditional cloth mask. For health cae workers, at least once daily in-hospital or industrial laundering is another precaution we recommend. For lay people, we recommend daily high temperature, machine laundering with detergent. Hand hygiene should be used before and after handling the mask. Masks should be handled from behind by the straps to avoid touching the front of the mask before and after use.
Currently, we do not recommend these masks if commercial grade barrier masks are available; however, we are being pro-active in order to provide an alternative should such masks become unavailable. The surgeons involved in this collaboration would feel comfortable using these masks for personal protection, and the protection of their patients, but we are also working with our infection control specialists and other experts to conduct quality control testing before recommending their use. We are continuously working to iteratively improve mask performance and are currently testing filters for use in this mask. We have much work and testing to do.
We consider this open source, and we welcome feedback. Contributors: Easy to Sew YouTube Channel, Amita Shah MD PhD, Helene Perez MS, Erika Brigmon-Ibarra MD, Matthew BrigmonMD, Elaine Rich PhD, Tommye Austin PhD, Sherri Stewart, Elizabeth Stewart, Mary Stewart, Ronny Stewart MD, David Dilling, PeteDeWitt, Jan Patterson MD and many others across South Texas and the Internet.