When the Australian Standard is a P2 Dust Mask, why are weseeing peopel wearing a KN95 face mask and N95 masks for sale Australia?
It can be confusing as on international news they speakabout N95, Niosh , OSHA or a FDA mask. This refers to the USA standardcertifying this type of face mask. A KN95 is the Chinese Standard forparticulate respirators- and many manufacturers are in China.
The reason why you are seeing recommendations for KN95, FFP2and N95 masks Australia wide is because there is an issue with supply of P2Respirators / P2 face masks. Here are some reasons why:
Many Australian certified P2 masks for sale were used up inthe bushfires in Victoria and NSW in January.
People with family in China bought and sent PPE to theirloved ones after the bushfire to help them in times of shortage.
Most suppliers in China largely focus their manufacturing ontheir own local standards (KN95)
Factories in China know that if they get their PPE certifiedto UK or USA standards, there is a large pool of people to sell theserespirators to.
Australia is a drop in the ocean on global manufacturingterms. We are finding it difficult to get factories to make AS/NZ standard aswe just are not a large player in the market. It’s basic economics.
This is why you are seeing global standards other than P2mask for sale Australia on the market here. In times like this, as long asthere are particulate respirators for sale available, we just need to educateourselves about the certification standards around the globe.
There are a lot of similarities between a N95 mask for sale,a P2 mask for sale and other global equivalent respirator standards. Peopleoften use the names interchangeably. Themain difference is which country’s standards are used in assessing samples ofthe manufacturer’s products.
The N95 is the NiOSH (USA testing requirements) and the P2represents the Australian testing requirements.
N95 face masks are examples of personal protectiveequipment, or protective facemasks that help protect you from airborneparticles.
The ‘N95’ designation means that during testing of samples,the respirator blocks at least 95 percent of microscopic particles. In Australia, P2 masks for sale block atleast 94 percent of microscopic particles. This provides very little differencein respiratory protection to wearer.