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Doctors and the Totobobo Mask
Three different kinds of medical evidence sit behind this mask, and they are not equally strong. Hospital clinicians have tested it in controlled studies. An independent physician reviewed it publicly, unpaid, over five years. And doctors in London, Manila and Vienna have worn it daily for a decade or more. Here is all of it, in that order, with sources you can check.
Tier one
Clinicians who tested it
The strongest evidence is not a doctor saying they like the mask. It is a hospital research team measuring what it does.
Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong — randomised controlled trial. A team including Prof. Charles Gomersall of the Chinese University of Hong Kong compared Totobobo against a certified N95 respirator across 22 subjects. The N95 performed better on median particle-count reduction. Totobobo achieved a 135-fold reduction, and the difference in the proportion of subjects reaching a 100-fold or greater reduction was not statistically significant. The authors concluded the mask could not be recommended without fit testing, but that its performance warranted further investigation.
Au SSY et al., Journal of Hospital Infection, 2010. PubMed 20359769
Follow-up fit and comfort study. A later Hong Kong study, with an independent participant group, examined fit performance and wearer comfort in more depth. Fitting in this study was assisted.
Hui, Leung and Gomersall, Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, Vol. 38 No. 10, 2017.
Queen Mary University of London — black carbon reduction. Five masks were compared for their reduction of black carbon exposure. Totobobo recorded the highest reduction of the five at 71%, which the researchers attributed to differences in filter material rather than face seal.
Liu, Wan, Russell, Jones and Grigg, Thorax, 2017. This is a conference abstract, not a full peer-reviewed paper, and the figure applies under the study's test conditions.
Ordinary users, fitting it themselves. The 2010 study's caveat was that the mask should not be recommended without fit testing. This study addressed exactly that: 22 participants fitted the mask themselves, with no assistance from the inventor. 91% rated it comfortable overall, with 73–82% across the individual comfort dimensions measured.
Li et al., Journal of Industrial Textiles, 2022.
Read the studies in full See the filter test reports
Tier two
A physician who reviewed it independently
Dr. Richard Saint Cyr, MD
Board-certified family physician, then at Beijing United Family Hospital. Health columnist for the New York Times Chinese edition. Author of the evidence-based blog MyHealth Beijing.
Between 2010 and 2015 Dr. Saint Cyr wrote about the Totobobo mask five times. He tested it on his own Beijing bicycle commute, cited the Hong Kong trial above, and reported both what worked and what did not — including that the mask has no exhalation valve and that grades F92 and F94 fall below the 95% threshold an N95 certification requires.
In his 2010 review he stated plainly: "Totobobo didn't pay me anything, and I get no income from them".
That remains true. There has never been any payment, affiliate arrangement or sponsorship between us and Dr. Saint Cyr.
Read the complete five-year record of Dr Saint Cyr's review on Totobobo mask,
with every article dated and linked
Doctors who wear it
Personal accounts from working clinicians, published with their permission. These are their experiences, not claims we make about the mask.
Dr. Anil Simhadri, MB MChir (Cambridge), MRCP (London)
Physician, University College London. Daily cycle commuter. Totobobo user since February 2010.
Dr. Simhadri has asthma and uses a salbutamol inhaler. He began ordering Totobobo masks in 2010 for his commute through inner-city London traffic, and reports that his six-mile ride improved from roughly 60 minutes to 50 while wearing one. His own explanation is that asthma involves airway hyper-responsiveness to triggers, and that reducing the pollutants reaching his airways removes some of that trigger.
Dr. Simhadri's account of his own asthma is his, not a claim by us. A mask reduces exposure to airborne particles; it does not treat asthma. Anyone managing a respiratory condition should follow their own clinician's advice.
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Dr. Mary Grace, MD
Healthcare worker, Manila, Philippines. Out-patient department and COVID wards. Totobobo user since before the 2020 surge.
Dr. Mary and her husband, also a healthcare worker, bought their masks ahead of the pandemic reaching the Philippines and used them as their primary protection while handling patients. She wrote to us that despite cheaper and more widely available alternatives being marketed locally, they kept using Totobobo for its durability and reliability over two years of daily hospital work.
She also told us what does not work well. With prolonged tight wear, the edge of the mask presses into the skin at the nose bridge. She solved it with her own padding, which then introduced a small leak under the eyes — a trade-off she described as minor but real. We publish that because a mask that fits nobody perfectly is more useful to know about than one that supposedly fits everyone.
Dr. Mary also shared her own health outcome over that period. We have not reproduced it here, because a personal account cannot support a claim about preventing infection, and we will not imply one. Our filter testing measures particle filtration efficiency. It does not measure infection risk.
Dr. Tünde Alföldi — Alföldi Dental System Kft.
Dental practice, Hungary. Team of seven. Occupational use from spring 2020.
When COVID-19 reached Europe, Dr. Alföldi's practice faced a specific problem: aerosolised saliva from dental procedures, and a national PPE shortage. The government supply amounted to six FFP3 masks for a team of seven, and they did not fit. She emailed us during a late-night search for alternatives. We recommended the Pro99 filter, supplied a printable sizing template so each team member could trim a mask to their own face, and worked through the customs and import obstacles with her over several weeks.
"Everyone in our surgery says that compared with FFPs, they can breathe much better in the Totobobo mask; you can wear it for hours. And of course, you can fit it to your face — not like the oversized FFPs we were provided." — Dr. Tünde Alföldi
Dr. Alföldi's comparison is her team's own experience of the specific FFP3 masks they were issued. FFP3 is a certified European respirator class; Totobobo is not certified to it. What her team describes is a fit and wear-time difference, not a filtration-class equivalence.
What the mask is, and what it is not
Is Totobobo an N95 respirator?
No, and we have never claimed it is. N95 is a NIOSH certification granted to a complete, fit-tested respirator model. What we publish instead is filter media testing and independent study data. Nelson Laboratories recorded 99.86% particle filtration efficiency at 0.1 micron for the F96 filter, under the conditions of that test. Where older third-party writing attaches "N95" to Totobobo, that refers to a filtration grade, not a certification.
Does it prevent infection?
We do not make that claim. A well-fitted filtering mask reduces exposure to airborne particles and droplets. Whether that translates into avoiding any particular infection depends on far more than the mask, and no personal account can establish it. The BioCote silver-ion additive in the mask body is a surface hygiene feature only; it is not a filtration or infection-prevention claim.
Why does fit matter more than filter rating?
Air follows the path of least resistance. If a filter has high air resistance, even a small gap at the edge of the mask leaks heavily and the filter rating becomes close to meaningless. Totobobo uses low-resistance filter media and a thermoplastic body you can heat-mould and trim to your own face, so the seal is something you adjust rather than something you hope for. The mask is transparent, which lets you see the contact line and check the fit yourself.
Does it have an exhalation valve?
No. Dr. Saint Cyr noted this in 2013 and said that in his own use he had not found it a problem, which he attributed to the fit. A valve would also vent unfiltered exhaled air, which is why valved respirators were restricted in many clinical settings during COVID-19.
Is it suitable for clinical use?
That is a decision for you and your institution, not for us. Where a certified, fit-tested respirator is required by protocol, use one. The doctors above describe their own choices in their own settings.
On these accounts. Every doctor named on this page gave written permission to be named and quoted. None was paid, and none receives commission. Where their accounts describe health outcomes, those are their own experiences and are presented as such. If you are a clinician who has used the mask and would like to add to or correct anything here, tell us and we will publish it.
Try it yourself
The Totobobo mask is a reusable thermoplastic mask you heat-mould and trim to your own face, with replaceable filter inserts in four grades. It is silicone-free and latex-free. Ships worldwide from Singapore.
Last reviewed [DATE]. Nothing on this page is medical advice.