The pandemic prompted the use of many different types of masks, but one way or another, all masks eventually provide the perfect environment for microorganisms to gather. While using a mask, heat, moisture, skin, and hair residues allow odor-causing bacteria to rapidly reproduce.

Sanitized, producer of antimicrobial hygiene function and material protection for textiles and polymers, has performed an internal mask wear trial test in order to test the effectiveness of the Sanitized hygiene function.

Wear trial results

The results for the untreated masks were unsettling. The microbiology team detected an average of 15,000 colony-forming units per gram of textile (i.e. the number of bacteria per gram of textile with the ability to reproduce) after being worn for an hour.

When evaluating the untreated masks after four hours, the measurements showed that the textile had 70,000 colony-forming units per gram.

After being worn for four hours, the treated mask only had 35,000 colony-forming units.

As a result, when testing the bacteria levels on each mask, the treated mask outperformed the untreated mask. The amount of bacteria on the treated mask was half the amount of colony-forming units recorded as opposed to the untreated mask.

Adapting to a “New Normal”

Recent post-vaccine studies indicate the consumer concern for personal hygiene will remain for many years to come, and will influence how they shop in the future. Daily life will, of course, continue to focus on cleanliness and health.

Despite the increasing availability of vaccines, retail forecasters believe that antimicrobial-treated textiles will be a required market-standard going forward.