Erika Hansen, an Industrial design student from New Zealand, researched the use of respirators for cycling and running. Throughout her research Erika concluded the key challenge of respiratory protection design is to create a mask that people want to wear. She also listed a few additional challenges:

We invited Erika to take a look of our SuperCool and see how far it match her ideal design of a respirator mask.

After trying the SuperCool mask, following is what she has to say.

Industrial design student Erika test SuperCool mask at Oriental Parade, Wellington, New Zealand on the 17th of August - Photo by Bayden Filleul

“I have to say, the SuperCool looks neat! It’s petite, slim and foldable for easy transportation. The transparency has a friendly feel but its only once you put it on that you realise how unobtrusive the SuperCool really is, to look at and wear.

Being a petite woman, the Supercool was a little long for me, which put pressure under the nose and excess material under the chin however it can be simply trimmed down with scissors. The instruction booklet enclosed with the mask could be improved if it clarified this attribute with a series of diagrams. The embossed website address confuses which way up the mask should be worn. My interpretation was that you would wear the mask with the text upright so it was readable, positioned under the chin. However the form of the mask suggests that it is designed to be worn up the other way, with the text under the nose. A clear visual in the instruction booklet could demonstrate this and save users from trimming the ends only to find that it’s upside down. However the ability for the user to create a custom fit, simply with a pair of scissors is great.

At first the SuperCool can take a bit of effort to put on but, unlike other masks I’ve experienced, you can whip it off with ease, without feeling like your being strangled by the tangled mess of straps.

On testing the super cool I have to say I was rather impressed! With personal design experience in the area of respiratory masks I can appreciate how challenging it is to design a mask that users not only feel comfortable enough to be seen wearing but actually enjoy wearing! The SuperCool will definitely benefit users who feel at all claustrophobic in half face masks that cover the nose.

I do have questions about the performance of the mask when it doesn’t cover the nose. For exercising it could be a good solution as most people tend to breathe through the mouth however this wouldn’t necessarily be the case for other users such as allergy sufferers. There is potentially a compromise in the performance of the Supercool as there is no seal around the filters however users can easily remove the covers and replace the filters themselves when required.

The SuperCool is surprisingly comfortable. I could happily wear it for a few hours at a time and occasionally become unaware of it. After half an hour of use I was left with light indents on the face but I view this as assurance of a tight seal rather than a down side.

It’s great to see that the SuperCool is latex free, a huge plus for latex allergy sufferers! The SuperCool appears to be a great mask for those wanting personal protection from particles and due to the size it would make a great travel companion should unexpected situations arise where you would benefit from low level respiratory protection against particles.”

Erika Hansen
Industrial Design
Massey University
New Zealand
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Editor note:
Thanks to Erika’s feedback, we’ve improved the instruction of the SuperCool mask and made the possibility to trim the mask more clear.
Regarding the orientation of the mask, some users achieved a better face-seal while wearing the mask in the upright orientation. Others find the upside down orientation is better. This has also been expained in the instruction sheet.
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Riding in Seoul with a safety cyclist wing

A conceptual work as mentioned by UrbanVelo.
Cyclist safety is one of the main concern that stop potential cyclist to choose bicycle as a mode of transportation.
Many drivers, even some cyclist, believe cyclist enjoy the road at the expenses of road tax paying car-owners.
The “Cyclist Wing” enhance cyclist visibility and safety on the road. From the driver’s perspective, the “Wing” makes cyclist becomes 300% more visible, and therefore easier to avoid.
“Safety by number” is an important factor supported by a huge body of research finding. More cyclist = more safety for cyclist .
The “Wing” makes the visual population of cyclist in any city increased to 300% with the same number of cyclists. Driver need to drive more carefully due to the apparent increase number of cyclists on the road.

With the air-cleaning function of the “Wing”, cyclists make a tangible contribution to the environment, at the same time return the right-of-way to cyclist.
it is also a subtle reminder of the harmful pollution from cars. The “Wing” earn the right-of-way for cyclist from a social perspective.

The “Wing” will help to tilt the favor towards cyclists and turn more potential cyclist into real cyclist.

Do you think the air-cleaning-cyclist-wing concept can work in your city?

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advanced cycling mask

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Cover of Develotour DVD. The ultra lightweight mask they wear is considered by many cyclist the best in the world

Goska and Hervé of Dévélotour Asia released the documentation film of their year-long ECO-cycling trip from France to Asia, crossing some of the most polluted area including India, Thailand, Vietnam and China. They covered a total distance of 16,000 km on bicycle, observing and reporting the environmental issue as they pedal.

The lightweight and comfy Totobobo mask was their choice of respirator for lung protection from heavy air pollution. From 1:05 to 1:38 in the clip below you can see why they need a pollution mask and how Totobobo has been used during the trip.

“The TOTOBOBO anti-pollution masks came in very useful in India! We’ve tested the masks in Delhi, the Indian countryside and Calcutta. I can tell how polluted were these cities, by the varying shades of brown on the used filters. Even far from cities and factories the air is very polluted.”
- Goska Romanowicz

Used filters before, inside and after Beijing, each one after 6 hours of pedalling

SuperCool – the best pollution mask just got better!

The ultra-lightweight-transparent-mask were considered by many cyclists the best in the world. Yet the design team in Totobobo has been working continuously to improve it further. Based on the feedback from Develotour and many cyclists, the original Totobobo mask has been re-designed. The result? Another revolution! the latest SuperCool model further enhanced the strengths of the original design, such as lightweight, re-usability, easily clean, fold-flat, and improved on the comfort and fit. The SuperCool makes heavy breathing easier through mouth, completely eliminated the glasses fogging problem while perfecting the fit and face seal. Early adopters like Ross from California, Maurice from Thailand and Erika from New Zealand has given their seals of approval. Jump to the Special September Offer to get a good discount while the offer is still on!

SuperCool - the coolest pollution mask

SuperCool - the coolest pollution mask

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“I’m a Product Design student in New Zealand and I’m currently looking into the issue of Respiratory Safety for exercising outdoors in Urban areas. To find a solution I need to find out as much as possible from those of you who feel affected/concerned by the issue. I will be designing a system or product that hopefully appeals to users and improves respiratory safety and performance but I need to know your thoughts/wants/needs/don’t wants in a product!! If you’ve got a bit of time it would be great if you could answer the following survey to help my research along! ”

Erika Hansen testing a respirator running

Erika Hansen, a Industrial design student from New Zealand posted a survey regarding respiratory protection in outdoor sports to many cycling forums like Melbourne Cyclist , Bike Radar, Vorb and others. Her questionnaire must have traveled around the world multiple loops and helped her uncovered many useful insights.

I was curious and asked Erika if she would mind sharing her research. Erika is very kind and forwarded her research synopsis to share with all.

Erika Hansen-research synopsis

The measured mean tropospheric NO2 for 2008 as measured with the satellite instrument SCIAMACHY. Hotspots on these world map are the industrialised area in Europe, China, the USA and South-Africa. A lot of other mega-cities can also be found as a localised spot with enhanced NO2 concentrations.

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A big thanks to Ross for providing his first hand experience with the SuperCool mask. You can follow Ross at twitter

Ross X, the "dude-on-a-bike"

But when I wrote to the company informing of my problem they were willing to offer a few suggestions. One was to try cutting the mask to better fit my head, but the other was about this new version that only covers your mouth. I gave it a try.

That I am no longer exhaling into the mask, the fogging glasses issue has completely disappeared. (I breathe in through my mouth, which is in the mask/filter, and out through my nose.) Actually, I think I get a better seal with this smaller mask than I did the full one. And I find there is much less condensation collecting in the mask (no humid exhale within the mask), which means I do not need to wash the mask as often. This may also have a positive impact on the filters (keeping them drier), but I’m not a scientist, so I can’t credibly comment on that.

Pulling down the mask to talk to other cyclists is also very easy with this mask. You can talk through the mask, but you might sound a little like Darth Vader, so I simply pull the mask down around my chin if I want to talk, then pull it back up when I ride on. The side straps are very stretchy.

I also have a mask by another company–it’s neoprene and velcros in the back. I haven’t really tried this mask extensively due to a few reasons: 1. it looks like it would tend to get hot in the summer days here in Los Angeles–as it covers a lot of skin on your face and neck essentially with a wetsuit, 2. the metal nose bracket, which I thought would be beneficial to get a good seal, seemed to irritate my nose, and 3. the Totobobo is just so light and easy to use I just haven’t had a compelling urge to try another mask.

Big props to the company–who has seemed to design a great, simple product–and whose customer service has been very responsive and helpful. When I change out the filters they are visibly discolored–and I’m glad that at least some of that stuff that I otherwise would be breathing (dirt, pollution, particulate matter, brake shoe dust, etc.) is in the filter instead of in my lungs.

Ross, the dudeonabike
Los Angeles, California, USA

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SuperCool pollution mask helps cyclist and motorcyclist to fight traffic fume

Cyclists and Motorcyclists! If you are looking for a pollution mask that really sucks, your long awaiting search has come to an end. The new pollution mask from TOTOBOBO, called SuperCool mask, is designed to suck more, traffic fume that is— leaving only the clean air for your lung. Its high efficient filter keeps the nasty nano-particles out and doesn’t diminish the oxygen you pull in with each breath.

“The SuperCool is the world’s first pollution mask with the nose uncovered. Such unexpected feature brings surprising advantages. First of all, exhaling through the nostrils will never fog up your glasses. Having the nose free means you can clear your nose while protecting your lungs – a necessary edge when racing traffic or just cruising through town.” according to Francis Chu, a cyclist and the designer of SuperCool. “You can even switch between nose and mouth breathing instantly when riding through alternate clean and polluted area – no need to stop to remove or put on the mask.”

Whereas other masks require intense scrubbing to keep them clean, the TOTOBOBO can be washed and dried within minutes. Your breathing gear will no longer have a funky film of week-old bacteria. Even if you do, the SuperCool is easier to clean than the dishes in your sink. The rest of your cycling gear can be smelly and gross, but at least the one that covering your face should be kept clean—and odor free. Oh, and germs? No worries. The SuperCool is embedded with anti-microbial Silver ion inside out so nothing can grow on it.

The SuperCool mask is customizable to fit your face as need be. This helps to keep the best fit and seal. It also prevents your roommate or sibling from borrowing it and getting it covered in their germs.

The only way the TOTOBOBO SuperCool doesn’t suck is the SSS-look – Sleek, Slick and Slim, a far cry from other protective masks which look like the gear of a Storm-trooper from Star Wars. The SuperCool is small enough to fold into your pocket and weighs next to nothing (18 grams). It will slide under any helmet and leave plenty of rooms for glasses or goggles.

Best of all, the TOTOBOBO SuperCool mask is reusable, just replacing the filters as it turns grey. The SuperCool mask and filter are now available at totobobo.com. You will even get a free reusable pouch for carrying the mask!

About Totobobo:
Totobobo is the world’s first customizable respiratory mask designed to fit both adults and children. It has been sold to over 35 countries. Totobobo mask uses patented technology that ensures comfort and good protection from pollutants.
Totobobo is a trade mark of Dream Lab One Pte. Ltd.

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The Sunday Times – by Jonathan Leake, Environment Editor
source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7140213.ece

cyclists riding in traffic inhale 5 times more pollution than drivers and padestrian

The research involved fitting cyclists with devices that could count the particles, mostly emitted by car exhausts, in the air they were breathing.

It showed that urban concentrations of nanoparticles, which measure just a few millionths of a millimetre, could reach several hundred thousand in a cubic centimetre of air.

The particles, when inhaled, have been linked to heart disease and respiratory problems.

Because they are exerting themselves, cyclists breathe harder and faster than other road users. The study found that they suck in about 1,000 cubic cm with each breath, meaning they may inhale tens of millions of the particles each time they fill their lungs, and billions during a whole journey.

“This is the first time anyone has counted the particles while also measuring people’s breathing during city commuting. It showed that cyclists can inhale an astonishing number of pollutant particles in one journey,” said Luc Int Panis of the transport research institute at Hasselt University in Belgium, who led the study.

For the research, just published in the journal Atmospheric Environment, Int Panis and his colleagues asked cyclists to pedal while wearing a mask fitted with instruments that could measure and count the particulates, as such particles are known. All are invisible even in severely polluted air.

The researchers found that in Brussels the cyclists inhaled 5.58m nanoparticles for every metre cycled, dropping to about 1.1m when they tried the experiment in Mol, a much smaller town in Belgium.

They also found the cyclists inhaled four to five times more particles than a car passenger driven along the same route.

Int Panis said: “The air pollution figures in a big city like London or Birmingham are the same as or greater than in Brussels so British city cyclists will experience similar effects.”

For cyclists and other road users, the key question is what the health impact might be of inhaling so many particles.

This has been one of the hardest questions to answer because the time lag between exposure to pollutants and developing an illness is usually long.

Earlier researchers had the same difficulty when studying whether smoking was linked to lung cancer, and it took decades to confirm the connection.

New techniques for gathering and analysing data mean, however, that the health problems caused by particulates are emerging much more quickly.

A study carried out in London, to be published soon in the journal Epidemiology, is expected to show that exposures to high concentrations of nanoparticles are associated with a higher risk of heart disease. It will also show an association between larger particulates and respiratory health.

Other studies have shown that exposure to particulate pollution can have rapid short-term effects too — such as provoking asthma attacks.

In a 2007 study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers at Imperial College London asked 60 people with mild or moderate asthma to walk along the western end of the busy Oxford Street in central London, where only diesel-powered taxis and buses, plus cyclists, are permitted. The volunteers suffered asthma symptoms such as reduced breathing capacity and lung inflammation.

Diesel vehicles emit far higher levels of pollutant nanoparticles than petrol engines.

What alarms health researchers is that such particles are so small that they penetrate the lungs and circulate in the blood. They are then thought to accumulate in organs such as the heart and brain and cause inflammatory reactions.

Wearing a mask offers little protection as the particles are so small that they pass straight through any shield.

Earlier this year, such fears prompted the House of Commons environmental audit select committee to publish a report warning that air pollution caused about 50,000 premature deaths a year in Britain.

Int Panis’s research has already annoyed cycling groups. He has decided not to attend Velo-city 2010, a conference on cycling to be held in Copenhagen next month, because of the hostility he faced when announcing preliminary results of his research.

Int Panis and his colleagues point out that cycling still brings many health benefits and hope that it may be healthier than driving a car.

Int Panis said: “I am a cyclist and the idea that riding a bike might be less healthy than driving is not pleasant, but I am also a scientist, so I have to look at the data.”

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The coolest pollution mask

TOTOBOBO SuperCool is the perfect filter mask for cycling and outdoor sports in polluted cities. This innovative respirator covers only the mouth. By removing the nasal cover from the original design, you can exhale easier through the nostrils without filling the mask with uncomfortable heat and moisture. The SuperCool mask is truly the coolest breathing mask in the world. With the nose free there is no concern of fogged up glasses. It is also slim and sleek, easy to wear while cruising around.

The coolest pollution mask

The TOTOBOBO SuperCool uses top-quality High-Efficiency-Air-Filters to keep unwanted airborne particles out of the respiratory system. Test in the Prince of Wales Hospital, Chinese University, Hong Kong, has demonstrated the effectiveness of the Totobobo mask.

The unique “SoftTech” material enable TOTOBOBO mask to fit snugly and comfortably to the face. It forms an air-tight seal so air can only get in through the filters. Remarkably, the mask can be trimmed to fit any face.

The mask is reusable and a pair of disposable filters is less than a dollar for a typical week long use in highly polluted cities. The TOTOBOBO SuperCool Mask is of superior quality and is the best value amongst competitions.

The SuperCool’s streamlined design is tailored for use with a helmet and goggles or glasses. Talking is more easily done and your smile is not lost behind a bulky mask, so communicating while riding is not an issue as it is with other masks. Cleaning your nose is also quite possible — if you ever need to. This product is a must have for any city riders. The SuperCool mask is now available from http://totobobo.com/buy.html .

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Agushermawan from Indonesia put up a popular review of Totobobo mask. I don’t understand Indonesian but judging from the broken translation via Google and the photos, it must be quite clear that there is a real need for pollution mask in Jakarta.

Filter gets a dirty grey after two days of cycling in Jakarta

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Adrian, Willett & Mark of Viva La Bike recently post a review of Totobobo mask from Shenzhen, China.

Mark

Adrian

Dustin

After wearing the Totobobo mask, I honestly feel a discernible difference between the Totobobo and other lesser masks I have worn. In short, the bottom line is the way I felt during and after the ride, as well as the before and after shots of the filter. While we do not have access to technology that assesses filter effectiveness on a chemical/molecular level, the mask seemed to perform as it was intended to perform. Overall, the performance was solid, and is an excellent choice for those concerned about air quality.

Pros
Good Seal
Small Shape
Good Fit
Super lite and thin
Thin but very strong strap
Feels durable

Cons
Condensation>Wetness
Intake airflow produces a suction affect on mask

Review Testing Conditions

Air temp 25C, 70-80% humidity
Medium level of pollution report by Hong Kong Air Quality center
Ride-Streets, bike paths and sidewalks of Shenzhen

Observation:
Overall product performance was positive. Wearing the mask was fairly comfortable. The fit was good and it provided a solid seal when sufficient tension was placed on the strap. Inhalation(intake) provided a bit of a challenge as a suction affect occurs. However, during regular riding which requires normal inspiration/expiration, the suction effect is minimal. Exhalation(breathing out) was not an issue at all. Air flow outward tends to flow up through/by the eyes, which has the potential to fog glasses. Condensation within the mask tends to make the seal where the mask contacts the face, a bit sweaty. The positive benefits of the mask, perhaps outweigh a few of the minor nuances associated with wearing a mask that is of higher quality that of the N95 variety. Strictly going off of feeling and smell, when riding the bike while wearing the mask, intake of air simply felt improved. Riding my bike at least twice a day, I can really tell the difference between the way I feel post-ride as well as during. After wearing the Totobobo mask, I honestly feel a discernible difference between the Totobobo and other lesser masks I have worn. In short, the bottom line is the way I felt during and after the ride, as well as the before and after shots of the filter. While we do not have access to technology that assesses filter effectiveness on a chemical/molecular level, the mask seemed to perform as it was intended to perform. Overall, the performance was solid, and is an excellent choice for those concerned about air quality.

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