Testing respirators and face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic

The unit Prague Aerosol Calibration Centre (PACC) led a ollaboration with more than 50 producers of respirators and face masks to test their products during the COVID-19 pandemic. The increased demand for highly efficient personal protective equipment and the urgent need to draft regulations for producing appropriate filters in a very short time frame required dedicated facilities to test products and have extensive high-quality measurements of the filter effect of different materials.

The PACC was very well suited for this, although the research focus was on hygroscopic behavior and growth of cloud condensation nuclei activity of aerosols.

For about one year, several tests were performed on more than 350 types of respirators and face masks, showing how ACTRIS can react to social challenges arising at short notice. Furthermore, it shows that infrastructures used for research in the field of aerosol are also suitable for fulfilling application-related tasks.