With more and more people opting to wear masks in public with the rise of a new COVID variant — in spite of mixed results of them actually affording much protection from the tiny virus — a new study about masks might give people pause.
According to the National Institutes of Heath (NIH), scientists from Jeonbuk National University in South Korea have determined that the masks thought to be the safest for COVID — N95-style masks — contained eight times the recommended safe amounts of total volatile organic compounds(TVOCs).
These compounds can cause everything from headaches and nausea to cancer.
By comparison, simple cotton masks or other face coverings didn’t shed such compounds.
The study didn’t look into how humans were exposed to the chemicals, just that they were present in the masks and could potentially be internalized if one wears them for prolonged periods.
Dr. Stuart Fischer, an internal medicine physician in New York, told DailyMail.com that “strong” conclusions couldn’t be made from the study, though he adds, “there seems to be diminishing returns on the need for [wearing] masks.”