Regardless the reason why it is beneficial, I notice that almost all industrial respirators have valves, and the two respirators I know of that do not were designed by amateurs during the COVID pandemic.

That said, you've already purchased a respirator without a valve, so I would keep using it, but if you lose it or need to buy a new one for some reason, I'd go with one with a valve.

[-]jefftk3mo20

the two respirators I know of that do not were designed by amateurs during the COVID pandemic

I'm aware of at least the ElastoMaskPro, Flo Mask Pro, and Envo Pro N95. Are these what you're talking about?

almost all industrial respirators have valves

Sure, but they're also not designed for infection control. If you're using them in a situation where you don't need source control, then a valve is great. But ones designed for medical contexts generally don't have valves.

[-]philip_b5mo40

How do people react to the sight of you in that mask?

[-]jefftk5mo30

I haven't noticed any reactions.

[-]Bridgett Kay5mo30

It looks like it's difficult to wear with glasses. Do you have any ideas for adjustments that might make them fit better?

[-]jefftk5mo30

Yes, it doesn't fit super well with glasses. I just put them on over and while its not ideal it doesn't bother me too much for the subway ride.

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EDIT: this post is based on a misreading of a graph; see Subway Particle Levels Aren't That High.

Back when I was still masking on the subway for covid (to avoid missing things) I also did some air quality measuring. I found that the subway and stations had the worst air quality of my whole day by far, over 1k ug/m3, and concluded:

Based on these readings, it would be safe from a covid perspective to remove my mask in the subway station, but given the high level of particulate pollution I might as well leave it on.

When I stopped masking in general, though, I also stopped masking on the subway.

A few weeks ago I was hanging out with someone who works in air quality, and they said subways had the worst air quality they'd measured anywhere outside of a coal mine. Apparently the braking system releases lots of tiny iron particles, which are bad for your lungs like any tiny particles. This reminded me that I'd looked at this earlier, and since I spend ~3hr in the system weekly (platform + train) it seemed worth going back to masking. I've now been masking for a week, and am planning to keep it up.

This is an ElastoMaskPro reusable N95 I got for elastomeric fitting. Very easy to breath through, which helps make up for how my beard makes it hard to get a tight seal.

At $30 (vs $0.60 for my favorite disposable) a reusable one comes out ahead after five weeks if I follow the guidance of using single-use ones only once. Now, when I used disposables I would reuse them many times, but the efficacy likely dropped off a bunch: the fit is worse because the elastic stretches, and they get beat up a bit in my backpack. Likely still cheaper to use the reusable one, given how long it should last, but with how I'd use them most of the gains are in efficacy and not cost.

On the other hand, if I wanted to be able to talk to people I'd go with the disposable: the ElastoMaskPro is worse for intelligibility than all the respirators I tested a few months ago.

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Masking on the Subway

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