This 1656 woodcut (see photo) depicts the plague doctor “Dr. Beak from Rome” (“Doktor Schnabel von Rom”). His bird mask was stuffed with straw, which served as a crude air filter. Medieval artists alternated lampooned him (as here) and later celebrated him as scientific and practical methods of plague control slowly proved themselves over the more superstitious practices of that era.
When we got into this we were thinking about how smart homes (and smarter air purification) could reduce dust buildup in our more dusty urban areas (like urban California, Europe, and Asia). While it was obvious there was a lot of dust buildup on furniture, we didn’t realize just how badly air quality fluctuated from day-to-day here.
Bird Flu or just poor air quality
Earlier this week one of our staff members saw someone walking the streets of Los Angeles with a surgical mask on. He appeared to be from a part of Asia that had experience with bird flu, and wearing surgical masks on the street is more culturally accept there than here.
Initially, he thought the person might be a flu patient, and might just be wearing the surgical mask to prevent infecting other people (as is the polite custom in some Asian countries). But that was one of the bad air days in Los Angeles, and he later realized it is also the custom in those countries to check the air quality report and wear a mask if necessary!
An alternative to an air filter?
A N95 sanding mask such as the 3M Particulate Sanding N95 Respirator is designed to filter out 95% of dust particles in non-oily industrial environments. (It is not the “Breaking Bad” type of mask, because we’re only concerned about dust here, not oily particles, fumes, or dangerous gases. Note the mask does not protect against Ozone, another cause of bad air days in urban environements, only PM 2.5 and PM10.0 dust pollution.)
If you check the readout from our app you’d find that you’d need to be in the “Very Unhealthy” or “Hazardous” conditions before reducing your PM2.5 or PM10 concentration down to 5% of the original level would not put you below 10 micrograms per cubic meter, which is within the EPA green zone for PM2.5 dust. As far as we know, we’ve never seen “very unhealthy” or “hazardous conditions” out here in California, except in the immediate outskirts of a forest fire or in an industrial setting, although such conditions were infamously reported recently in some urban areas in China as a result of pollution.
One of our staff members lived in San Diego at the time of a forest fire there, and, come to think of it, have an N95 respirator mask around can come in handy. (The authorities will tell you to either use of one of those, or a wet cloth. The respirator mask is definitely better, and designed for longer-term wear.)
With our recent week putting the Los Angeles air officially in the PM2.5 “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” category on multiple days, and having seen San Jose officially go into the “Unhealthy” category just before Thanksgiving (probably due to the extra vehicle pollution from Thanksgiivng travelers), the mask might come in handy if you need to go outside, or you find after using our app with your handy home laser particle counter that your existing air purifier isn’t cutting it on bad air days.
Our initial focus was on dust (and smarter homes, home appliance, and the Internet of Things) so even mentioning that a mask might a good idea is kind of a disappointment to us. Nevertheless, we admit they are cheaper than buying that second air purifier (although perhaps not if worn all the time!), and will come in handy if you are sanding around the home
Prepared for the Bird Flu
Another option is the 3M 1860 N95 respirator and surgical mask, advertised as providing some protection against bird flu. We’ve gotten used to seeing these, often handed out by governments, during the Avian and Swine flu epidemics in recent years. This (and worse air pollution) is why it’s social acceptable to wear masks on the street in many Asian countires.
This surgical mask also meets some CDC standards to help reduce the spread of many diseases, which can involve very small particles. Everyone associates them with bird flu (and were reports of hoarding of these masks in the United States during the bird and swine flu scares). In Asia it is also sometimes custom for the infected patient to wear these masks, since that also helps reduce the spread of the disease. So the next time the flu is going around your house, you can potentially hand these out to family members.
It’s not designed for as long-term use as the N95 sanding mask, but they are both N95 respirators so are rated to be equally affective against dust particles. Their alternative uses (sanding, or protection against infectious diseases like bird flu) are simply different.
It seems like they’d be useful items to stock around the house, whether you’re planning a sanding project, worried your air purifier might not cut it on a bad air day (which happen in other parts of the country as well), live in an area with frequent forest fires, or are stockpiling in case of bird flu or just regular flu.
Doctor Schnabel and his medieval respirator mask
If you’re considering stuffing one of those medieval bird masks with straw as an alternative to a respriator mask (or, better yet, decent air purification or filtration in your home), we recommend against it. For starters, some medieval types would say you’d need a swine mask rather than a bird mask for swine flu. In general, when it comes to particle filtration and safety, we think medieval makeshift respirators were a major advance in their day, but today they’re mainly for the birds.
Legal Disclaimer: For informational purposes only. Do not attempt wearing medieval bird mask respirators at home. Follow all manufacturer’s instructions especially with regards to children. This blog should not be construed as medical advice. If you think are suffering from black plague, scurvy, hang nail, writer’s block or even something serious like allergies, or are in an environment with unusually poor air quality such as around wildfires, please consult competent medical and/or public health professionals.
Update
This article was timely in a number of ways. There were reports of a new bird flu outbreak just a few days after it was originally published.
Also, one source we found after writing this says the bird masks beaks were originally filled with fragrant petals not to serve as an air filter but merely to mask the stench of rotting corpses during the Plague. They didn’t have the germ theory of the disease at the time, but instead believed the Plague was caused by evil spirits. Bird masks were chosen because they were frightening, and hence could frighten away the evils spirit responsible for the disease, at least according to this source. But we think there are many frightening masks that could have been chosen. Is it possible that bird masks were chosen because they were both frightening and had room in the nose to accommodate a great deal of the straw or fragrant petals? Although the original intend of the crude respirator may have been to eliminate the odor, it might have also filtered out the bacteria somewhat. And, hence, while the mask’s design may have originated in superstition, it’s use may have been continued because of a gut feeling by medieval practitioners that it actually seemed to work somehow. The 1656 woodcut we used as a photo originally appeared on the cover of Science magazine some years ago, which discussed the respiratory theory.