Letter to the Editor of The Atlantic on the need for better masks.

Regarding:

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/01/why-arent-we-wearing-better-masks/617656/

As the authors wrote, any mask is better than no mask, but America is stuck having inferior masks. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to test how good a mask is, both in filtering and fit?

There is a test that works, is proven, and is cheap: a saccharin taste test. Saccharin is aerosolized. If the fit has leaks or the mask material is poor, then the wearer will taste saccharin strongly.

This is essentially the method behind the officially recognized QLFT fit test used in hospitals. The test is 30 years old, or more.

But the marketing/communication benefits far outweigh the science/engineering benefits. An old saying is "I’ll believe it when I see it." In this case, they taste it. It’s kinda like walking past Cinnabon in the mall and smelling the sugar. With a good mask, you can’t smell it. With a lousy mask, you smell it strong. In between, you smell it in between.

It can also work to help people wear their masks better. They can try it with and without a brace and literally smell the difference.

Using it informally, without special equipment is somewhat newer of an idea. But doing the test using off-the-shelf saccharin (e.g. SweetNLow) has been tested by two groups of scientists and accepted by the US military.

A government standard would be better in many ways; to mark better masks from minimally helpful masks. But the fit issue will always exist, and the sweetNlowMaskTest addresses both poor fit and poor filtering masks.

See more including some video and references at: https://link.medium.com/90N566pt1cb