Wear a mask without looking like wearing a mask
By Dyske May 26th, 2009
This girl figured out a way to wear a mask without looking like wearing a mask. She printed her own face and glued it on to the mask.
My friend in Japan told me that everyone is wearing a mask over there. What they are afraid of isn’t so much the Swine flu itself, but what happens to you socially if you catch it. You wouldn’t be able to lead a normal life because you would be ostracized. They are in a full crisis mode with just under 300 people with the flu. Here in the US, we have 6,700 cases but I don’t see anyone on the street with a mask.
What I don’t understand is this: If you don’t have the flu, is there any point in wearing a mask?
Frank Luo says:
May 27th, 2009 at 12:31 amI believe that you find it pointless to wear masks when one is not sick because the Japanese wear masks for a different reason than people in, say, China.
Most people around the world wear masks to protect themselves. To what degree this actually works is debatable. But the idea is that the masks keep stuff out. In this instance, to block oneself from inhaling particles of spittle someone has sneezed up.
The Japanese on the other hand traditionally wear masks to keep stuff IN. They wear masks when they are sick so that they do not spread their disease around.
Obviously that is changing as they are now wearing masks in the hopes of preventing their own infection as opposed to that of others. But even then the perspective is a social one — not the fear of the disease but the fear of being a social outcast.
Rana says:
July 3rd, 2009 at 1:08 amThe other advantage of a mask is that it keeps you from touching your nose or mouth with hands that may have touched contaminated surfaces.
Hien says:
July 11th, 2009 at 1:16 amFrank: I agree with what you say on the most part. However, in Vietnam there are so many scooters on the road that exhaust is a problem. People wear similar cloth masks to prevent inhalation of such fumes. Now the issue of how effective it is unknown to me, but I found that it made some kind a difference by seeing how dirty the mask was from the outside. Also, with the wind blowing into your face, it makes it easier to talk or relax your jaw.
Frank Luo says:
July 13th, 2009 at 2:40 pmMany third world countries suffer from a problem that is not nearly so severe in the developed nations — namely, air pollution by particulate matter. This is especially prevalent in the “emerging” nations where motor vehicles are increasing in numbers but is still relatively expensive and/or difficult to replace, such that laws mandating the retirement of older models are unlikely to be passed.
Older motor vehicles, especially those without catalytic converters, send a large volume of particulate matter into the air. This constitutes a lot of the black stuff you would see on the outside of these masks, or in your nose, if you do not wear such masks. Particulate matter is extremely harmful and it is good to keep as much of it out of your lungs as possible.
This is why in third world countries you always see dark streaks that trace the patterns of water trickles running down the sides of buildings — when it rains, the particulate matter gets caught in the raindrops and deposited when the rain hits something. Then it flows down the sides of buildings with the rain and creates those dark streaks.
Taiwan used to have those when I was a kid in the 70’s. These days the emissions laws are much tougher and only older buildings have those streaks. I’ll see if I can get some photos of those when I visit this summer.
Of course, there are a lot of other things in polluted air that can hurt you, that are invisible… But I suppose keeping out some of the stuff you can see does help. How much I don’t know.
Roxzane says:
October 24th, 2009 at 5:31 am^^ I think quite some people have these in Korea.
regnad says:
September 6th, 2010 at 8:40 pmHeck, I had swine flu. Eventually a 10-20% of the high school students where I taught at the time got it. If 10 students in a “kumi” got it, the whole kumi went home.
It wasn’t ostracization. It was a 5-day vacation.