Pollution Masks

four years since my last dredge so we're due another. Can anyone recommend an anti pollution mask? I've really noticed it the last few days with the poor air quality.

Going for a really deep dredge here.....
Any recommendations on a good mask that you might use?

None

decathlon, 3m, make sure it's snug

I use the Respro Techno when it's cold, but it's like trying to breathe through a pillow.

Anyone have experience with Cambridge Mask Co.? Never really bothered with pollution masks but since London is once again becoming the Big Smoke, I might have to.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/you-cannot-breathe-london-cyclists-don-face-masks-amid-soaring-pollution-levels-a3449481.html

Are there any plans to actually do anything about this? Other than telling the victims of the pollution to just, you know, breathe less.

I wouldn't imagine .. we have a #PostTruth Mayor in Sadiq Khan IMO.

Any technical advantages claimed by Cambridge on its website, is nicely cancelled out by this bit of scaremongering;

#takecontrol

Twenty quid in Screwfix. Comfy, breathable. Only downside is the obvious one.

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You are Chris Froome and I claim my £5. :)

@Sharkstar Does it get a bit sweaty in there? Problem for me wearing those shitty 'cycling masks' was how damp it got in there, my lungs were actually collecting moisture, at least that's how it felt.

Next week on Black Mirror...

If I pull that off will you die?

Comfy, breathable.

... FOR YOU

etc etc

That mask with melanin content has John-Charles DeMenezes written all over it.

You get condensation but it's kept off your face, so no big deal, and it doesn't feel like the air gets particularly 'wet'. My commute's only 30 mins but you could probably go a couple of hours without having to pour the water out. So far, that's not as bad as it probably sounds. On the whole, feels a lot better than breathing diesel filth.

Obviously, but for less than twenty quid you can try it yourself. Much better value than the cycling-specific masks where all your money goes on margin, styling and marketing.

Come back in a couple of months and show us your tan lines. Then again it looks like you're heading straight for a secure psychiatric unit so you probably won't stand out too much.

do any of these actually work?

Any links to recent studies would be appreciated.

Can't link to studies. But having used various types of masks in labs, cleanrooms, etc (and had a couple fail also), for them to work well, they have to fit properly. I've not seen one person in the wild, so to speak, wearing one of the cycling types without a gaping chasm between their face and the mask, especially when moving around. So of course the majority of the air follows the path of least resistance around the mask. Sadly for me also beards and these things won't get on either for the same reasons.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5289918/

Background:
Practical approaches to protect individuals from ambient particulate matter (PM) are urgently needed in developing countries. Evidence on the health benefits of wearing particulate-filtering respirators is limited.

Objectives:
We evaluated the short-term cardiovascular health effects of wearing respirators in China.

Methods:
A randomized crossover trial was performed in 24 healthy young adults in Shanghai, China in 2014. The subjects were randomized into two groups and wore particulate-filtering respirators for 48 hr alternating with a 3-week washout interval. Heart rate variability (HRV) and ambulatory blood pressure (BP) were continuously monitored during the 2nd 24 hr in each intervention. Circulating biomarkers were measured at the end of each intervention. Linear mixed-effect models were applied to evaluate the effects of wearing respirators on health outcomes.

Results:
During the intervention periods, the mean daily average concentration of PM with an aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 μm (PM2.5) was 74.2 μg/m3. Compared with the absence of respirators, wearing respirators was associated with a decrease of 2.7 mmHg [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.1, 5.2 mmHg] in systolic BP and increases of HRV parameters, including 12.5% (95% CI: 3.8%, 21.2%) in high frequency (HF) power, 10.9% (95% CI: 1.8%, 20.0%) in the root mean square of the successive differences, and 22.1% (95% CI: 3.6%, 40.7%) in the percentage of normal RR intervals with duration > 50 msec different from the previous normal RR interval (pNN50). The presence of respirators was also associated with a decrease of 7.8% (95% CI: 3.5%, 12.1%) in the ratio of low frequency (LF)/HF power.

Conclusions:
Short-term wearing of particulate-filtering respirators may produce cardiovascular benefits by improving autonomic nervous function and reducing BP.

^Interesting that the methodology was to measure cardiovascular benefits overall rather than "how much shit do you have in your lungs". I suppose the latter is quite hard to measure without invasive techniques like biopsy.

Interesting that the 3M disposable masks used in that study are supposedly capable of filtering 95% of 0.3 micrometer-sized particles; I was under the impression that most of the cycling masks sold were useless against PM10s and smaller?

Have only skimmed the study, but it looks like they only evaluated effectiveness for walking, rather than for any strenuous exercise.

interesting, thanks