HealthDay reporter
FRIDAY, January 14, 2022 (HealthDay News) – Face masks are being touted as a key tool to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and a new study offers more evidence that they work.
Researchers in Florida have found that face masks reduce the distance that airborne pathogens such as coronavirus can travel by more than half.
The results show that some guidelines for the social distancing of COVID-19 can be eased when people wear masks, according to the authors.
“The study provides clear evidence and guidance that three feet apart with face covers is better than six feet away without face covers,” said study co-author Karim Ahmed. He is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Central Florida.
For the study, Ahmed and colleagues used special instruments to measure the distance in all directions that droplets and aerosols travel from 14 people aged 21 to 31 when talking and coughing while wearing different types of masks or without a mask.
Each participant recited a phrase and simulated a five-minute cough without a face mask, with a cloth face mask, and with a three-layer disposable surgical mask.
The air emissions produced by participants when talking or coughing spread four feet in all directions without a mask, compared to about two feet when wearing a cloth face and about six inches when wearing a surgical mask, the researchers found.
The study was published on January 12 Journal of Infectious Diseases.
According to researchers, learning more about how to reduce the transmission of infectious diseases by airborne droplets can help protect people and manage the response to COVID-19 and other pandemics.
The next step is to expand the study with more participants.
The idea for the study comes from a study of jet propulsion conducted by the team.
“The principles are the same,” Ahmed said in a school news release. “Our cough and speech are exhausted driving loops.”
More information
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States offers a guide to masks.
SOURCE: University of Central Florida, press release, January 12, 2022