History of Surgical Face Masks

Spooner, John L.

doi:10.1016/s0001-2092(08)71359-0

Cited by 42 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…New materials and designs in surgical masks led to a new generation of devices for testing surgical masks' filtering efficiency. One study reiterated that the filtering efficiency of surgical masks made of gauze was negligible, dampening further decreased surgical masks' efficiency, improper fitting permitted bacteria to escape from the sides of surgical masks, and surgical masks made of multiple layers were the most uncomfortable to wear 6 …”

Section: Historical Overview Of Surgical Masksmentioning

confidence: 99%

A century after their introduction, are surgical masks necessary?

Belkin¹

1996

AORN Journal

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Section: Historical Overview Of Surgical Masksmentioning

confidence: 99%

A century after their introduction, are surgical masks necessary?

Belkin¹

1996

AORN Journal

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“…Surgical masks and respirators. Surgical masks date back to the late 1800s and in 1897, Radecki described a surgical mask that was composed of a single layer of gauze [518]. Following on from a paper published by Hamilton in 1905 which advocated the use of masks by nurses performing dressings and by doctors at the time of surgery [519], Weaver in 1918, discussed the value of a facemask in preventing spread of infectious disease.…”

Section: Surgical Gowns Aprons and Gloves And Healthcare Workers' CLmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medical textiles

Morris

Murray

2020

Textile Progress

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“…Accompanying this explanation of the epidemic was the development and proliferation of an anti-epidemic technology that Wu actively propagated as his own, personal invention: the "anti-plague mask" (Figure 1). This resembled recently established surgical face-worn protective devices (usually dated back to 1897; Spooner 1967) but generally involved more protective layers and a more complex tying process, designed to keep the mask in place while operating in the adverse open-air conditions of winter-time Manchuria:…”

Section: The Emergence Of the Plague Maskmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plague Masks: The Visual Emergence of Anti-Epidemic Personal Protection Equipment

Lynteris

2018

Medical Anthropology

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Often described as "masks" face-worn devices are employed as personal protection equipment by health workers and the general public and considered to be an indispensable technology against epidemics. Simultaneously, they are potent symbols of existential risk. Could these material and visual aspects be more than simply indexically connected? In this article, I examine these apparatuses through a historical anthropological approach of their invention during the 1910-11 Manchurian plague outbreak. Arguing that they should be taken seriously as masks, I demonstrate that their emergence was rooted in their configuration as transformative agents of medical reason.Assuming the form of a diagonal band spanning the interior of a white circle, a cotton facemask appears to be "stamped" on the cover of the Sunday magazine of Hong Kong's leading journal, the South China Morning Post. On the murky blood-red background, behind this striking visual device we can read in alternating order, like a genetic sequence of doom, the ominous acronyms of three emerging infectious diseases: H7N9 (avian flu), SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome). This peculiar visual assemblage functions as an epidemiologically inflected "STOP" sign. Printed in smaller letters under it, the cover title of the Post Magazine's December 1, 2013 issue explains: "Stress and strains. Hong Kong's never-ending fight against viruses." The issue's cover story, like similar feature articles that, in that same year, paid homage to Hong Kong's SARS epidemic decennial, contains striking images. The majority portray individuals in different settings donning a range of face-worn personal protection equipment (PPEs): "a member of staff at the Beijing Centre for Disease Control put[ting] on a decontamination suit" (Lazarus 2013:11); a seven-year-old girl (the first H7N9 human case in Beijing) wearing a blue surgical mask while lying in a hospital bed with her toy bunny while an eerie figure donning goggles and a latex face-worn device faces the camera; "a haj pilgrim near Mecca, in Saudi Arabia wear[ing] a mask to avoid catching Mers [sic]" (21); five hooded, white overalls and goggle-wearing "health workers carry[ing] away bags containing dead chickens during a culling operation near Kathmandu" (21). 1 In relation to these images, the facemask sign on the front-page functions as an accumulative second-order signifier. Assembling and entangling emerging pathogens as an existential risk, it provides an essentially apotropaic promise of scientific control vis-à-vis the "next pandemic."In terms of remembering SARS and preparing Hong Kong's population for what Laurie Garrett (1994) has coined the "coming plague," the facemask in this publication thus appears to carry certain talismanic properties, allowing humanity to persist on the edge of a pandemic "end of the world." At the same time, in the 15 years since the 2003 global outbreak, the use and efficacy of PPEs in epidemic control has become the subject of intense scientific d...

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History of Surgical Face Masks

Abstract: The myths, the masks, and the men and women behind them

Cited by 42 publications

References 16 publications

A century after their introduction, are surgical masks necessary?

A century after their introduction, are surgical masks necessary?

Medical textiles

Plague Masks: The Visual Emergence of Anti-Epidemic Personal Protection Equipment

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