New Study Debunks This Belief About Face Masks
Breathe easy. A new study suggests that surgical face masks don’t cause a buildup of carbon dioxide or restrict oxygen, despite opposing claims.
The study, on the “Effect of Face Masks on Gas Exchange in Healthy Persons and Patients with COPD,” which was published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society on Friday, was conducted after a group of Florida residents challenged Florida’s mask-wearing mandate in June, arguing that wearing the protective face coverings could result in the buildup of too much carbon dioxide.
Researchers led by Dr. Michael Campos, a pulmonologist with the Miami VA Medical Center and the University of Miami Hospital and Clinics, looked at problems with changes in oxygen levels or carbon dioxide levels in healthy individuals and those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) before and while wearing surgical masks.
The small study included 15 military veterans with severe COPD, each with lung function under 50%, and 15 healthy participants. All participants wore masks for 30 minutes and were told to walk for six minutes while wearing the surgical masks. Researchers then gave each participant a blood test and discovered there were no differences in levels of oxygen or carbon dioxide.
“This data find that gas exchange is not significantly affected by the use of surgical mask, even in subjects with severe lung impairment,” Campos said in the study. (Read more from “New Study Debunks This Belief About Face Masks” HERE)
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