UK PPE & RPE specialists - 3M, Trident, Moldex, GVS, Sundström, & more. Weekly Advice: Mask Monday 🎭 & Terminology Thursday 🔍. Real humans on the phones 📞.
Somerset, UK
Joined March 2020
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The Face Mask Store retweeted
The PCR positivity map is out and nationally it looks like we've entered a plateau.
England is on 10.15% adjusted; Scotland on 5.49%.
jamestindall.info/skeuomorph…
1/7
Hi Dan. The unvalved JedX (the 5141) is on our US store now, but in sand only. No plans at the moment to bring the black version to the US. If that changes we’ll post it here.
We also sell the unvalved and FFP2 variants.
Unvalved FFP3.
thefacemaskstore.co.uk/produ…
Valved FFP2.
thefacemaskstore.co.uk/produ…
Unvalved FFP2.
thefacemaskstore.co.uk/produ…
Find them on our store.
thefacemaskstore.co.uk/produ…
!Mask Monday! 🎭
This week: the JedX FFP3 5482 - a Finnish valved FFP3 for people who find the usual shapes a struggle.
It’s a fish-type mask, which is the horizontal fold that opens into a pouch rather than a cup or a three-panel. The upside is room: it sits off the mouth, so there’s less fabric on your lips when you talk and less heat build-up on a long shift. Headband straps, an adjustable nose clip over a foam nose seal, and an exhalation valve on the front.
It also comes in sand rather than the usual white or black, which some people prefer: it doesn’t show dust the way white does and reads less clinical than either.
The number worth knowing. EN 149 allows an FFP3 up to 3.0 mbar of exhalation resistance. JedX test theirs at 1.68. Combined with the valve, that’s why people who find other FFP3s hard going for more than an hour tend to get on with this one. Filtration is quoted at 99.76% against the 99% the class requires, tested at VTT, the Finnish national research centre. It’s FFP3 NR: one shift, then bin it.
Made in Finland, which matters to some buyers for supply-chain reasons and to others because it means EN 149 testing happened where the mask was made, not a continent away.
What it isn’t for: the valve means your exhaled breath leaves unfiltered. Dust, fume, solo work: fine. Anywhere the person next to you matters, or anywhere a sterile field is involved, the same mask comes unvalved (the 5141), and both shapes are also made in FFP2 if the job doesn’t need the top class. And as with any tight-fitting mask, the rating only holds with a fit test passed in this make and model; a fish-type seals differently from a cup, so don’t assume one passes because the other did.
Find it on our store - link below 👇
Thanks @socrates2sox, for a small face and a sharp nose on headbands, two we'd point you at: the CAN99 9500 (three-panel shape sized for smaller faces, soft aluminium nose piece you can shape on the face rather than pre-bend) and the Project 3 by Trident, which comes in five sizes down to XS and has a sample pack so you can try sizes without buying boxes. Most of our masks have a singles option for the same reason.
One thing on the nose seal: on a flat-fold, shape the clip to the bridge after the straps are on, pressing from the bridge outwards with both hands, then do the seal check. Pre-bending to a V then putting it on is where a lot of sharp-nose leaks come from.
If you wear glasses and hate taking them off to put a mask on, this one's for you. Ear loops, flexible nose clip, folds flat in a pocket. Coming to our US store in four colours. #MasksWork
Coming soon to the USA Face Mask Store: The Adventure Mask 🇺🇸
Our own ear-loop FFP3, made for us by Rosimask, is crossing the Atlantic. Fold-flat, unvalved, five layers, flexible nose clip, individually wrapped. Boxes of 10 in White, Gray, Black or Navy.
It's the mask we get asked for most by people who can't get on with headbands: it goes on without taking your glasses off, it packs flat in a bag, and it's the one we point to when someone needs a box by the front door for visitors.
Straight answer on the rating: it has been tested and meets the standards of FFP3, which is the top disposable class under the European standard (EN 149). It is not NIOSH approval and so isn't classed as an N95. Happy to answer any questions on this topic.
Which colour are you waiting on?
Find it on our US store - link below 👇
I can now confirm they are on their way to our USA FACE MASK STORE!
xitter.cf/FaceMaskStore/status/2…
Coming soon to the USA Face Mask Store: The Adventure Mask 🇺🇸
Our own ear-loop FFP3, made for us by Rosimask, is crossing the Atlantic. Fold-flat, unvalved, five layers, flexible nose clip, individually wrapped. Boxes of 10 in White, Gray, Black or Navy.
It's the mask we get asked for most by people who can't get on with headbands: it goes on without taking your glasses off, it packs flat in a bag, and it's the one we point to when someone needs a box by the front door for visitors.
Straight answer on the rating: it has been tested and meets the standards of FFP3, which is the top disposable class under the European standard (EN 149). It is not NIOSH approval and so isn't classed as an N95. Happy to answer any questions on this topic.
Which colour are you waiting on?
Find it on our US store - link below 👇
Glad to have you on board, Nico. Hope the scans go smoothly.
Proud to be an affiliate of the @FaceMaskStore.
In fact, I'm just grabbing some MRI-safe FFP3 respies now, ready for scans next month.
Link below gets me a commission on sales!
Thanks Nico. For anyone wondering what "MRI-safe" means on a mask: the CAN99 9500 uses an aluminium nose piece instead of steel, so there's nothing ferrous to react in the scanner. Worth a quick word with the scanning department beforehand though, as some units have their own PPE rules on the day.
Coming soon to the USA Face Mask Store: The Adventure Mask 🇺🇸
Our own ear-loop FFP3, made for us by Rosimask, is crossing the Atlantic. Fold-flat, unvalved, five layers, flexible nose clip, individually wrapped. Boxes of 10 in White, Gray, Black or Navy.
It's the mask we get asked for most by people who can't get on with headbands: it goes on without taking your glasses off, it packs flat in a bag, and it's the one we point to when someone needs a box by the front door for visitors.
Straight answer on the rating: it has been tested and meets the standards of FFP3, which is the top disposable class under the European standard (EN 149). It is not NIOSH approval and so isn't classed as an N95. Happy to answer any questions on this topic.
Which colour are you waiting on?
Find it on our US store - link below 👇
Both write-ups, one on disposal and one on recycling:
Can Disposable Masks Be Recycled? The Current State of Play in the UK
thefacemaskstore.co.uk/blog/…
How to Properly Dispose of Used Face Masks (UK Guide)
thefacemaskstore.co.uk/blog/…
For most people the honest answer is simpler: make less of it. UCL's Plastic Waste Innovation Hub put a reusable mask at around 85% less waste than disposables. A half mask with replaceable filters produces one small filter per change instead of a mask per shift, and where the job allows it, that's the change that matters. This is how you keep one going.
xitter.cf/FaceMaskStore/status/2…
Tips & Tricks: How to clean a half mask at the end of a shift 👇
Reusable means reusable if you look after it. Ten minutes at the sink is the difference between a mask that lasts years and one that grows something.
Filters off first. Every time, before water goes anywhere near it. Particle and gas filters are not washable and a soaked one is a ruined one. Cap or bag gas filters while the mask dries; Sundström say a sealed plastic bag, and it's good advice for any brand.
Strip it. Head harness off, exhalation valve cover off, valve membranes out if your model allows. The valve seats are where dirt does the most damage, so those are the bits to get a soft brush into. Don't force anything that doesn't want to come apart.
Warm, not hot. Mild detergent, soft brush, water you'd be happy to wash your hands in. 3M cap it at 50°C, Sundström at 40°C, so lukewarm covers everyone. No oil-based or lanolin cleaners (3M), no solvents (Sundström). Rinse until there's no residue; leftover detergent irritates skin and can affect the seal.
Disinfect only the way your maker says. This is where brands differ and it matters. 3M specify a quaternary ammonium disinfectant or 30 ml of household bleach in 7.5 litres of water. Sundström specify a spray of 70% ethanol or isopropanol. Same job, different chemistry. The wrong one on the wrong mask can degrade the seal, so check the instructions for your model rather than borrowing a colleague's routine.
Air dry, then rebuild. Room temperature, out of sunlight, not on a radiator or with a heat gun. Reassembling a damp mask is how you get the smell that never leaves. Once it's dry, put the valves and harness back and do your normal fit check: cover the filters, breathe in gently, hold for ten seconds. If it doesn't hold, something's not seated.
Box it. Clean, dry, in a sealed box or bag, away from dust and sunlight. Not loose in the van. A seal that spends the night under a hammer isn't the seal you were fit tested in.
Worth knowing: an end-of-shift clean is not the monthly check. HSG53 expects reusable RPE to be thoroughly examined and tested at least once a month (every three months if it's used only occasionally), with records kept for five years. Different job, different depth.
Clean, dry, checked, boxed. Every shift.
Where does your mask actually spend the night? Be honest.
So can they be recycled at all? Only through specialist take-back schemes that collect PPE as its own stream, quarantine it, and send it to a recycler set up to handle it. The plastic ends up as things like outdoor furniture and decking. These schemes are aimed at businesses producing regular mask waste, not households, they won't take anything from a clinical setting, and they cost money. If your workplace is buying disposables by the case, it's worth asking your waste contractor whether one is available.
"But this box says recyclable." Some masks are made from a single recyclable plastic, and that's a real improvement. It still doesn't make them kerbside-safe: the contamination and machinery problems don't care what the material is. Recyclable means "can be recycled somewhere", not "put it in the green bin."