Face Masks - Covid

[Carl]

I'm guessing many of us are now wearing face masks as part of everyday life both personally and at work. It also appears as with anything else, the scammers are out there selling their cheap crap. 

Is your service supplying you with decent masks and are you happy they provide you with the required protection or have you bought your own. If you have, is it because of the latter and you didn't think they were up to the job. 

As face masks become the normal, the need to have decent protection is ever increasing. 

Feel free to discuss. 

[BurtMacklin]

3 types issued by LFB for covid safety, a type 1 surgical mask which are rubbish but plentiful, a type 2 which is triple layered and in scarce supply, especially since they mandated we have to wear these while we are on vehicles and a cloth mask which is for wearing when out and about on brigade and personal business. We had BA masks and filters at the beginning so a definite improvement but it’s all cheap stuff with Chinese writing on the boxes, none of it appears to be EU regulated PPE which explains some of the wording in the policies. 

[Carl]

Ive renamed this topic to reflect the answers and discussion I was seeking in relation to Covid

[TandA]

We have more types of masks on station than I can keep up with.  IIR masks for when we are drilling within 2m of a colleague or on the pump.  They meet the risk assessment but my personal opinion is they are a box ticking exercise to try and prevent whole crews being asked by track and trace to isolate as close contacts of one positive case rather than decent protection.  The masks are poor quality, they move, impinge on vision, fit very poorly etc.

We have N95 / Type 3 masks for if we’re are working within 2m of a casualty.  These look good quality, they are the ones the ambos use when undertaking an AGP and I would feel protected though my role hasn’t necessitated I wear one yet.  Additionally there are personal issue half masks that we can use when within 2m but they then require a decon procedure and we have a cloth mask for day to day use.   There is also a box of type 2 masks though not 100% sure where they appeared from and why.  With intermittent supply issues, especially early on in the pandemic, there have been times where we haven’t quite been issued with what we ordered but were sent the best available substitute and these may be an example of that.

[Keith]

More or less exactly the same for us @TandA, IIR for all the things you list and FFP3 (Type 3) for close contact with casualties. We have also use them for carrying out HFSC's which we are still carrying out for those deemed high risk.  Type 2 (FFP2) is your bog standard dust mask, which we would have used for damping down and turning over or grass fires etc. We've recently phased them out and use the FFP3 instead.

Have to agree with @BurtMacklin majority of the masks and other PPE are pure shite from China. When all this is eventually over, one of the major lessons will be we have to have quality PPE made in the UK.

[JonnyHolbs]

If I were a betting man, I would say that those masks will have been the ones that the mates of our illustrious PM procured from China, before realising they didn’t meet the standards required for use in healthcare. Still got their cash in the end though didn’t they. 🙄