Where to buy the best masks has come up a couple times with friends, who saw me post pictures of myself at work with an N95 mask. This post shares the sources I’ve found.
I’m a physicist, not a physician. This post is not medical advice.
(TL;DR: I like these masks. Also these. These are really good but they’re pricey. They are all Canadian-made N95-equivalent masks.)
I live in Toronto, which isn’t have a good time with COVID. Hopefully the pandemic will be over soon. At the moment, I am not yet vaccinated and still have a few things to do indoors around other people — medical appointments, occasional in-person work stuff — so I wanted to get a high quality mask. I don’t own a car, so going from A to B is either transit or Uber. I also want to be ready with a good source of masks in case the pandemic isn’t quite over but I’m teaching on campus this fall.
I started a year ago with a simple fabric mask. Then I got a box of surgical masks. Those work well (e.g., Bartoszko et al., 2020), are fairly comfortable, and generally come at a reasonable cost. The really cheap ones can be kinda awful. But the cost of good quality ones isn’t too bad (~$0.35/each).
CBC Marketplace visited a U of Toronto lab that did some comparisons of mask types. Surgical masks came out on top (CBC article here). The type of fabric mask U of T provided to all its faculty, staff, and students? It was at the bottom of the rankings. So I’m not trusting my workplace-provided mask. Except maybe on top of a good mask, for the sake of fashion…
I found an unlikely source of Korean KF-94s, which fit really well because of their different design. It was much easier to wear glasses/sunglasses with them. This prompted me to start looking beyond surgical masks.
What I want:
- greatest protection to the user — ideally N95 mask
- clear provenance — ideally made in Canada with transparent standards and test results
- good fit and comfortable — I had to try a few to figure this out
Why an N-95 mask?
N95 masks work better than other masks. In part this is because they have a layer with an electrostatic charge. Some European countries started requiring citizens to wear N95-level masks back in January. The YouTube channel Minute Physics did a really great short video about N95 masks (here).
(For the more technically inclined, here’s a science journal article by Bandi (2020) that describes how to manufacture N95-type materials for masks.)
There are lots of masks online that come from China. Or that aren’t labelled with a clear company/origin. Or the company and product info can’t be found online. For example, most masks from Walmart.ca and Amazon. Also, 72hours.ca has KN95s and “Made-in-Canada” N95s but I can’t seem to find any info about the companies. That might be ok? It’s hard to know. I’d prefer to buy masks from a known manufacturer that meet high standards and post independent lab test results.
Chinese (KN95) and other ‘N95 equivalent’ masks sometimes fall significantly short of N95 standards (e.g., ECRI report, CBC tests). I did buy a few KN95s because that’s what I could initially find. It would be preferable to buy from a Canadian company that is transparent about its standards and testing.
Here are high quality Canadian N95 masks I’ve found:
Eclipse N95 Masks
Eclipse Innovations is a company that manufactures N95 masks in Canada. You can read about them and their mask standards on their website here.
The nose bridge forms a really good fit and has comfortable secure padding. The straps go around your head to keep it snug. They might feel too hardcore for casual use. But if you want to go all-in, I think this is a solid choice.
The name of the distributor company they recommend, HotZone, is a bit “on the nose”. But I had a good order experience and would recommend them:
<https://hotzonetraining.com/personal-protective-equipment/>
The box contained 25 masks and each mask was individually sealed. That’s a nice feature.
(Supply + Protect is another Canadian website that carries the Canadian-made Eclipse N95 masks as well as surgical masks. But I haven’t used them.)
The downside is that the Eclipse N95 masks are expensive.
HotZone also sells surgical masks that look good and are much lower cost.
Dent-X & First Nations Procurement Inc. FN95s
This is my current favourite. They have a different shape from the other N95s I’ve had/seen. I find them the most comfortable of all the masks. I sometimes use a clip that came with my KF94s to connect the ear loops behind my head. This makes the mask fit snug.
Company website here, with mask details.
I bought a pack from Canada Strong Masks (they also sell cotton masks):
They’re lower cost than the Eclipse masks. Though they still cost more than surgical masks.
It’s interesting to note that these purchases support the Canadian Cancer Society. In addition, the masks are made by a partnership between Dent-X and First Nations Procurement Inc. (FNPI), which is a Certified Aboriginal Business with manufacturing facilities in Northern Ontario reserves (story). Sounds great all around.
Vitacore CAN95 masks
These have the best branding (“CAN95” with a nice maple leaf logo). The company seems good and were recently featured on CBC (article and video). I find them comfortable, though not as good as the other two above. They sell them in the ear-loop version or the headband style (like the Eclipse model).
<https://www.vitacore.ca/can95-respirator>
They also sell surgical masks and CAN99 masks.
Single use or re-use?
N95s get pricey if you wear them everyday. I don’t. I use one or two a week, when I’ll be around people indoors without distancing at times. I consider that cost worth it for the peace of mind that I’m doing everything I can do to stay safe (and because I can afford to). If I’m doing something where there is minimal exposure potential, e.g., a brief trip inside a cafe to pick up a coffee, I’ll wear a surgical mask or the more comfortable Dent-X N95, and I might hang it somewhere in isolation for a week before re-using it. It’s worth noting: don’t wash an N95 with soap and water since this diminishes the charge layer (Juang & Tsai, 2020).
If you have a good source of masks or tips, comment below!