Best Practices
When used properly, personal protective equipment (PPE) acts as a barrier between infectious materials (such as viral and bacterial contaminants) and your skin, mouth, nose, or eyes (mucous membranes). The barrier provided by the PPE has the potential to block transmission of contaminants from blood, body fluids, or respiratory secretions.
Traditionally PPE may also protect patients who are at high risk for contracting infections through a surgical procedure or who have a medical condition, such as an immunodeficiency, from being exposed to substances or potentially infectious material brought in by visitors and healthcare workers. Today PPE is experiencing an intense increase of demand owing to the airborne or contact infection of COVID-19.
When used properly and with other infection control practices such as hand-washing, the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, and covering coughs and sneezes, PPE minimizes the spread of infection from one person to another. Effective use of PPE includes properly removing and disposing of contaminated PPE to prevent exposing both the wearer and other people to infection.
The 3-ply mask helps protect others from its wearer's potential contagions; the N95 mask protects both wearer and others from infectious airborne particles going in and out.
N95 masks are the US standards for respirator masks; KN95 masks are the Chinese standards for masks. Both masks offer a PFE (Particle Filtration Efficiency) of >95% of airborne particles and are widely considered to be functionally equivalent. The masks have a distinct design difference that may or may not impact the fit/seal and therefore inward leak. N95 has a headband fitting with two elastic bands that fit all the way around the head while KN95 uses earloops, similar to a surgical mask.
Respirators contain filter material and are designed to form a seal with the wearer’s face so that air passes through the filter (instead of around the edges) before it is inhaled. Facial hair can interfere with this seal. No matter how well a respirator seals to the face and how efficient the filter media is, wearers should expect a small amount of leakage inside any respirator. No respirator will eliminate exposures entirely.
Respirators are used to protect the wearer from inhaling airborne particles. The respirator mask acts to filter the air inhaled by the wearer. Surgical masks are used to protect the wearer from exposure to bacteria, bodily fluids like blood, and to protect others from potentially infectious material originating from the wearer's mouth and nose.
Respirators must be properly selected and carefully donned (put on) and doffed (taken off) in a clean area, and worn the entire time in the contaminated area to have a significant effect on reducing exposure. Having the respirator off even 10% of the time in a contaminated area significantly reduces the protective effect of the respirator.
Do not wear disposable gloves instead of washing your hands. The virus gets on them in the same way it gets on your hands. Also, your hands can get contaminated when you take them off.
While disposable gloves are generally worn in medical settings and not as effective in daily life, they offer critical protection for those handling food or other consumables as well as those cleaning shared environments.
There is no right answer to this question. Please check any local regulations for your jurisdiction. We will continue to update based on the latest public health findings and best practices.
We suggest purchasing at least two KN95, N95, or 3-ply disposable masks per each day per employee. This is necessary in case a mask gets wet/contaminated during the day.
Purchase a stockpile that will last you at least four months because it is currently impossible to predict if there will be future outbreaks and potential supply shocks, so make sure that you maintain a stockpile that can last at least two months. After two months of use, evaluate your actual consumption rate/stock levels and consider making an additional procurement. If there are not large outbreaks, we expect that the price will gradually decrease although, once again, it is impossible to know what will happen in the near future.
No, medical equipment cannot be returned, but if you buy too much we will reroute it to a hospital on your behalf.
Please reference the following websites for reputable information on the fight against COVID-19 and the facts about PPE:
Irish HSE (Health Service Executive)
WHO (World Health Organization)
US CDC (Center for Disease Control)
