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Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Where do you put your face mask during lunch?

I did not have my camera with me today, but my colleague took this photo with his N95. His Nokia N95 phone. Not the N95 masks that people working in hospitals are wearing now.

We had lunch at one of the local hospital's staff canteen, and we were trying to observe where people put their face mask when they are eating.

Face mask on table and tray

Many people will just lower them to below their chin.

From the photo above, we could see that one person stuff her mask below her plate. Another one put it on the food tray. My colleague and I wonder if they are going to use that mask again?

No, these are definitely not the nurses or doctors. They are most probably visitors or students visiting the hospital.

Are masks suppose to be a one time use thingy? I certainly hope they are. Look at how people handle their masks!

5 comments:

doc said...

if the masks aren't used in a sterile environment, like in the OR, then it's probably ok to leave it around like the canteen scene, & then re-use it. after all, they function to protect others from your sneeze/cough.

in the OR, once removed from the face, esp after seeing to 1 patient, then it's prudent to use a clean one when attending to the next.

however, there's no hard & fast rules concerning masks, just common sense.

alexander said...

I'm with "doc". But it is good to be aware of what we are doing. A great capture to highlight this issue. Good observation.

Alexander
Alex's World! - http://www.kakinan.com/alex

Unknown said...

doc,

So I guess it's quite all right for them to put them on the table then ;-) They are going to lower it to yellow from orange the next few days. phew!


alexander,
long time to see!

alicesg said...

I guess they got no choice. These masks are now so precious. Masks are out of stock. You know where to get them? lol

Unknown said...

Only some places are out of stock. I still had some from the last time, i wonder if they can still be used...