protection

Time for a better mask to protect children

by info on March 17, 2008

“Totobobo is far superior to any other mask on the market. Period!””

7 years old Kayla wearing Totobobo mask, fighting Leukemia with the support from her mother, Debbie

7 years old Kayla wearing Totobobo mask

“After the Chemo Kayla is still immune compromised. This mask is our safety net that has proven its workability.
When Kayla did not have the mask and went to school she ended up in the hospital for two weeks, every month, for three months, totaling 45 days. With the mask -no sickness, no hospitalizations, no colds, nothing.
Your mask is far superior to any other mask on the market. Period! ”

- Debbie Witte, Kayla’s mum @ www.freehelpforcancer.com

Debbie known that her daughter Kayla needed proper respiratory protection if she wanted to play with other children. Kayla tried all sorts of masks: surgical masks, N95 masks but none of these work. Due to her compromised immune system after the Chemo-therapy, Keyla fall sick easily time after she play with other kids. Undefeated, Debbie continued to search. One day, a Google search led her to the Totobobo mask. After studied the website, she decided to give it a go. Much to her delight, the Totobobo masks works!

Filter + Face seal = good protection
The principle of how Totobobo mask work is simple: Isolation (good seal) and filtering.

principle of respiratory mask protection

Good protection = good seal + good filter

“Good protection is built on two factors: a good filter and a good seal“.

Surgical mask is not good enough

You may have seen news on TV that many school kids in Asia wearing surgical masks during the SARS. But the fact is surgical mask was not designed to prevent air-borne contamination. There are gaps from both sides that virus can bypass the mask easily.

sugical mask showing gaps from both sides

Surgical mask is designed to protect nurses or surgeons from contaminated blood splash during an operation. In Japan it is commonly used to reduce the risk of spreading the flu virus from the wearers when they are sick. The protection value of surgical mask from air borne virus is a big question mark.

N95 mask effectiveness: fit-testing is a problem

Adult N95 mask big gaps on child's face

Respirator (e.g. N95 mask), on the other hand, is designed to protect the wearer from air borne virus. This is only possible if the respirator is making a good seal on your face such that air have to go through the filter before entering the breathing zone. However a proper fit-test can only be conducted by a trained specialist with special equipment, which is simply too complicated for the public.

Manufacturer come up with “user seal check” which typically involve blocking the filter and blow into the mask while wearing it. To feel that if there is any air leak from gaps around the mask. But such practice is questioned by a study from the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong. The study suggested there is 25% of failure rate when trained users apply the standard “User seal check”. The standard user seal check recommended by most manufacturers is just too ambiguous and unreliable. “It’s usefulness as a pre-use test must be questioned”, the report concluded.

Another study “Respiratory Donning in Post-Hurricane New Orleans” (US CDC, May 2007) found 76% participants were not able to demonstrate proper donning for a good seal and their protection has been compromised.

TOTOBOBO mask improve user seal check by 25%

Main features of TOTOBOBO mask

Main features of TOTOBOBO mask

When looking for a respirator to protect his kids, Francis Chu, the inventor of TOTOBOBO mask, encountered the same frustration as Debbie. He became aware of the many difficulties faced by parents and determined to come up with a better solution. He applied his expertise in product design and experimented with hundreds of prototypes. Finally he came up with an ergonomic design that fits most people and can be customized to fit children.
He understand that beyond a good seal and good filter, other issues like comfort, cleaning, reuse, portability are all important factors need to be addressed before the mask can be considered as “Child Friendly”.

Following is a summary of the issues and respective solutions embedded in Totobobo:

PROBLEMS………………………………….. SOLUTIONS

Children’s face size varies …….…….. Trim it to fit small faces

Hard to determine a good seal …… VSC Visual Seal Check makes it easy

Difficult to disinfect (for reuse) …… Anti-virus mask easy to clean and safer to reuse

Children’s skin is delicate………… FDA approved, non allergic soft material
……
Not easy to carry………………..…………. light weight, folded flat

Parents and school teachers from different parts of the world have discovered the new solution for their children. If you are looking for an effective mask to protect your child, TOTOBOBO is exactly what your are looking for!

“It is the only mask out there that fits my boy and give him adequate protection.”
- Bob Williams, Knoxville , USA

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Read more about TOTOBOBO mask for children :

The best fitting mask for children

Say no to pollution in school buses

Time for a better mask for children

Protect children from incense smoke

Transparent mask make easy seal check

How to’s

How to customize TOTOBOBO mask for your children?

How to wash TOTOBOBO mask for reuse?

How to check the mask-to-face-seal without fit-test equipment?

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Clearly a Better Way to Check for Safety

by info on January 11, 2008

The protective function of a respirator mask is based on two functions;
(1) the filter media must let in air but stop harmful and unwanted particles from entering the breathing zone.
(2) the mask must fit the user’s face and form a complete seal so that no air bypasses the filter media and enters the breathing zone directly.

Filter + Face seal = good protection

principle of respiratory mask protection

Modern technology has produced highly efficient filter media that can achieve up to an incredible 99.9% filtration efficiency. Ensuring a secure mask-to-face fit, however, is not nearly as simple. Rarely do users achieve a professional-grade fit, and they are surprised when they do.

Fit-testing is a task that requires a trained professional, special equipment, knowledge and skills, and considerable time. There is QUALITATIVE fit test based on subjective senses of the user, and there is QUANTITATIVE fit test based on objective measurement which compares the particle counts inside and outside of a mask. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends that such a fit-test be conducted yearly for each user so as to ensure proper usage. Fit testing can determine if a mask fits the user during the test, but can not tell for sure if the mask still fits the user days or months afterwards. These fit-testing procedures are limited to occupational users and not commonly available. The general public has neither the equipment, nor training, nor expertise, nor regular access to professionals who do in order to conduct professional-grade testing on their protective respiratory masks when they need it.

In a recent study “Respiratory Donning in Post-Hurricane New Orleans” (published on the US CDCwebsite in May 2007), researchers found 76% participants were not able to demonstrate proper donning, resulting in the compromising of their protection. This study group should know a thing or two about proper protective mask use considering the ordeal they went through during the post-Katrina clean-up of New Orleans. Imagine in an emergency situation, what would happen if the public needed to wear respirators to protect themselves? How many of these people will be able to fit their mask properly? Less than 24%, perhaps? CDC has been reluctant to recommend N95 masks for the public use because for 3 out of 4 people the poorly fitted respirator may provide a fault sense of security and encourage risky behavior.
The Prince of Wales Hospital of Hong Kong conducted a study where subjects who had previously passed a fit test were asked to properly don a N95 mask and then check for adequate sealing. These same subjects were then given a TOTOBOBO mask which they have not previous experience and conducted the same test. The results found that although the TOTOBOBO mask performed slightly less than the N95 mask, most test subjects did achieve the appropriate fit and pass the test. How did the non-fit tested Totobobo match the fit-tested N95 mask for this group of users?

Transparent surface indicates good face seal of Totobobo mask

Transparent surface indicates good face seal of Totobobo mask

The TOTOBOBO mask solves the uncertainty about proper fit in a simple but extremely effective way. The transparent mask makes fit checking an easy task. Check around the perimeter of the mask and you can immediately decide if the face seal is good or not. This simplicity, combined with a soft material that comfortably fits your face, makes fitting a lot more intuitive and reliable. Now you can perform a more reliable face-fit check every time before entering a contaminated area. This is certainly more reassuring than relying on once a year fit test.

Reference:
ESICM Annual Congress-Totobobo-mask-1044

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