Czech Technical University Started Making Respirators Made from Snorkeling Masks
Coronavirus crisis and a shortage of safety equipment forced organizations to come up with a different solution. Even though the Czech government has ordered many masks and respirators in the past few days, there is still shortage of such supplies for essential workers, mainly medical staff. Essential workers, who come to a direct contact with infected people are putting their lives at risk, and also putting the whole medical system in risk. The lack of safety supplies forces them to treat patients without proper equipment. David Miklas decided to help those in need and started making safety equipments out of snorkeling masks.
"We bought thousands of snorkeling equipment and started producing shields that cover the entire face area. They work just like respirators. The truth is that they are not as comfortable, but it's better than nothing", said Miklas for CzechCrunch.
Along with the design team, they designed a section that connects the 'snorkel' with the P3R virus filter to ensure that neither the breathing nor the free environment gets infected, "Miklas says, with the P3R military filter filtering 99.999% and higher. Therefore, the filter is significantly more efficient than FFP3 respirators, it can also be sterilized and reused, which is a huge advantage.
Source: https://www.czechcrunch.cz/2020/03/zdravotniky-ochrani-netradicni-vybava-tym-davida-miklase-na-cvut-vyrabi-respiratory-z-potapecskych-masek/