Unmasking Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Larry A. Law

Recently I listened to an expert on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) share her 20-year experience as an authorized Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety and compliance professional. Tammy K. Herrema Clark is the expert who tells medical professionals what technical specifications are needed as far as masks, respirators, and clean rooms go. In our current environment, when many states are mandating the wearing of masks, it seems prudent to hear from an expert in this field.​

It can be confusing when we hear from some medical professionals that they have no negative side effects when wearing masks even though they may wear a mask for many hours a day. Tammy makes the point that medical professionals don't realize they are working in surgical rooms and areas of the hospital where additional oxygen, air flow, room pressure, temperature and humidity have been installed to compensate for the wearing of PPEs. This makes it possible for them to wear masks and surgical clothing safely. Tammy shares how OSHA goes to great lengths to be sure our medical professionals are safe knowing they will be wearing this type of medical garb.

But what about the average person? What about children? Those outside of these specifically engineered rooms have no such experts making sure they will be safe. The risks to their health are not being considered. Hypercapnia involves increased carbon dioxide in the blood and is a real concern. It is something OSHA carefully covers in their respirator standards. ​It is important to understand that a cloth mask is not PPE. A person would have to wrap their nose, mouth, eyes and ears with many multiple layers of cloth to have any hope of keeping the covid-19 virus out. Unfortunately, you wouldn't be able to breathe, see, hear, or talk! People are also claiming they only use the N95 mask because they believe it is the only one which works effectively. Let's look at that claim. 

The N95 mask is an authorized PPE but for a person to use it effectively, OSHA has required a medical evaluation, a Fit Test, and an annual check-up to ensure the person is healthy enough to safely use it. Since this mask creates a seal around the mouth and nose tight enough to alter the air pressure within the mask, people wearing it must be medically evaluated to ensure they are physically capable of wearing one while they work. Not only is this medical evalutation not performed for these people but they don't realize the N95 cannot block the coronavirus. It can block particle sizes down to 0.3 microns but the virus is much smaller at only 0.125 microns. Cloth masks and N95 masks are both hopelessly incapable of stopping the virus. It would be like pressing your face against a chain link fence hoping it will block mosquitoes from biting you.  ​

Not only are the cloth masks and the N95 masks ineffective against the coronavirus, the PPE experts claim they are harmful. Masks limit the oxygen a person can take in. Increasing levels of carbon dioxide get recycled back into our lungs. As mentioned earlier, hypercapnia is the result. It's just not safe to build up carbon dioxide in the blood. What are the signs this is happening to a masked person? Fatigue, inability to concentrate, headaches, dizziness/fainting, nausea, shortness of breath (dyspnea)/rapid breathing (tachypnea), seizures, and in the most severe cases an increase in blood pressure which can lead to a heart attack.

The United States is performing 500,000 more coronavirus tests per day than in the past. Of course, there will be more cases as a result. In addition, people are tired of the stay-at-home restrictions and are getting out more. People are also getting their elective surgeries and other medical visits they put off during the initial pandemic months. So, these are not new cases due to the pandemic. Most of these people are not even aware they were "sick." For more information on how the spike in coronavirus cases are being inflated, see my article which discusses it in depth.

​Tammy states it is important to observe how the hospitilzation rates and death rates have not increased proportionally. 99% of coronavirus cases recover completely. Of those who are hospitalized, only 0.3% die and she believes that was due to incorrectly treating the pandemic victims with ventilators as I've written about previously. Death from the disease is a rare event today, but fear-mongering and mandating of masks have ramped up...and for what reason? I can only surmise it is for political purposes and for the billions of dollars at stake with the new vaccine which is being fast-tracked out for the public. The dangers of the current vaccine approach raise grave concerns because safety testing is not being thoroughly done.

As an expert in the PPE arena, Tammy believes it is important to protect children and teachers as they go back to school. She feels all parents should ask for an exemption for their children, referencing OHSA's regulatory standards. She worked with a group of lawyers to draft one for her use as she has a school-aged son. Prior to today's hysteria surrounding masks, OHSA regularly cited anyone not following their regulations by ignoring the risks masks posed to human health.  Since no risk assessments are being planned for our teachers and students to see who is most vulnerable and/or compromised by wearing a mask, it should be assumed--based on OHSA's own standards--that everyone is at risk. Classrooms are not constructed to ensure increased air flow, oxygen augmentation, pressure, humidity, and temperature regulation to compensate for wearing a mask like hospitals are.

Common sense tells us it will be difficult to talk with a mask covering a teacher's mouth in a classroom situation. Facial expressions are essential for working with younger students and masks will obstruct and inhibit that communication. In addition, what happens when a child sneezes and the nose contents get smeared onto the inside of the mask? How is that managed? There will be higher risk of colds and flu because children will be touching their face more often by simply trying to keep their mask in place.

Finally, there are 22 countries whose children have gone back to school without masks. They have not had a spike in coronavirus cases and there is not one documented case of a child passing the disease to an adult. The scientific facts suggest it is time to stop the hysteria associated with this virus. The health of our children and teachers depend upon it. To view Tammy's informative presentation click here.