Children

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

Update: Kayla is now tested cancer free (2010-06-01):
“Kayla has worn the Totobobo mask every day since January 2009 and she has not been sick in any way since that time. She attends school every day and no sickness. This despite still being immune compromised. The doctors said that her immune system will not recover from the chemo for another six months. This mask is our safety net that has proven, for us, 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! Recently, we let our guard down and stopped wearing the mask, thinking that enough time had passed. She has now been sick for two weeks. No hospitalization, but still sick at home. We have learned the hard way the following lesson- wear mask, no sickness, stop wearing mask, get sick. It is as simple as that. Kayla went 14 months with no sickness while wearing her mask. She will now wear her mask again until flu season is over for 2010 – 2011 season.”

– Debbie, Kayla’s mum @ www.freehelpforcancer.com

“very comfortable and the airflow is much better than other masks on the market”

“I can find adult N95 masks, but none to fit a child.”

After the San Diego fire in the summar of 2008 Joe Flynn started to worry about her son. She bought a few N95 masks for herself but it was impossible to find smaller masks to fit her small child, at least not in USA.

Joe was not alone. Bob William from Knoxville has been trying hard to search for a small N95 mask that will fit his 6 years old boy. It was for his emergency kit. When he stumbled on TOTOBOBO mask on the web, he told himself “This mask is exactly what I am looking for.” Like Joe, after trying the mask on his boy, he was delighted that it fit comfortably on his son’s little face.

“It is the only mask out there that fits my boy and give him adequate protection.”

Bob said.

Good protection = good seal + good filter

“Adequate protection” is the key, it is built on two factors: a good filter and a good seal.

You can buy good filter by going for the trusted sources, but you can not buy good seal so easily. If you read the instruction of a certified N95 mask carefully, you will notice something like:
“a written protection program must be implemented meeting all the requirement of OSHA 29 CFR 1910.134 such as training and fit testing ..”

In simple layman term it means you have to wear the mask and pass a fit-test conducted by a trained person with proper equipment before the mask can be considered as effective for you. This is to ensure a good seal is formed between the mask and your face.

Surgical Mask

As seen on TV that many school children in Hong Kong wear surgical masks during the SARS. However surgical mask was not designed to prevent air-borne contamination. There are gaps from both sides that virus can bypass the mask easily.

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

Respirator (N95 mask)

Respirator (e.g. N95 mask), on the other hand, is designed to protect the wearer from air borne contaminants (e.g. flu virus) provided that the respirator is forming a good seal on the user’s face such that air have to go through the filter before entering the breathing zone.
To ensure a good seal, the user must pass a fit-test conducted by facilitator and with proper equipments. It is simply too complicated for most people and it is not practical to do the fit-test each time before using N95 mask. Manufacturer come up with “user seal check” which typically involve blocking the filter and blow into mask while wearing it. To feel that if there is any air leak from gaps around the mask. This “user seal” check is consider to be a surrogate fit-test for day to day use.

The risk of such practice is questioned by a study from the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong which suggested around 25% of failure rate even if a well trained user feel the mask is fitting well. The problem is that the user seal check recommended by most manufacturers is just too ambiguous and unreliable. “It’s usefulness as a pre-use test must also be question”, the report concluded.

Another study “Respiratory Donning in Post-Hurricane New Orleans” (published on the US CDC website in May 2007) further highlight the challenge to achieve a good seal. The researchers found 76% participants were not able to demonstrate proper donning for a good seal and their protection has been compromised.

TOTOBOBO mask is the solution you are looking for

During the SARS in 2003, when looking for a suitable mask to protect his boys, Francis Chu, the inventor of TOTOBOBO mask, encountered the same frustration as Joe and Bob mentioned earlier. He became aware of the many difficulties faced by many parents and determined to come up with a better solution. He experimented with hundreds of hand-made prototypes and finally came up with an ergonomic design that fits most people. The design can be customized to fit children from the age of five. He understood the fundamental of good protection are good seal and good filter. He also became known to the issues related to the use of reusable mask, such as comfort, cleaning and ease of use. The Totobobo mask was his answer to the many challenges.

The chart below listed the solutions to each of the challenges:

PROBLEMS…………………………… SOLUTIONS

Children’s face size varies …………. Customizable size and ergonomic design

Hard to determine a good seal …… Transparent mask makes seal check 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 started to discover 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!

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?

Where to buy the mask?

Totobobo online shop