The face mask gets a high-tech upgrade.
Models currently being tested do more than form a physical barrier between the carrier and potential viruses. Materials scientists, chemists, biologists and engineers have created working prototypes of masks that enable diagnostics, sensors and even the ability to kill viruses.
If you’re on a plane and the person next to you sneezes, you might be wearing a mask that sterilizes the air before you breathe it in for the foreseeable future.
Some of these new masks are designed for health professionals, while others will be marketed to both health professionals and consumers. Masks and respirators that are marketed as medical devices or as worker protection must be approved for sale by the Food and Drug Administration or the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or Niosh. (Respirators are masks that seal the face tightly, like the N95, and must fit properly to provide their ideal protection.)
“I am excited by the attention paid to masks,” said Christopher Sulmonte, project manager for the biocontainment unit at Johns Hopkins Medicine. The new ideas “have a certain scientific rigor,” he says. “Once we see how they work, we’ll see which tools make the most sense.”