People’s lives are at risk; most importantly, the front line health workers and charlatans are still taking advantage of this pandemic by selling counterfeit respirators. At the beginning of this pandemic, KN95 respirators and PPEs were nowhere to be found even in hospitals. But, then suddenly the very next month, there were tons of varieties for respirators in the market, most of which are fake or don’t live up to the laboratory standards.
Though, there are many places such as clinical supplies that you can trust with for buying original KN95 respirators in Australia. So, be it you are a doctor, or an elderly with a high risk to contract Corona, you can shop the legit respirators without giving second thoughts.
How to check if your KN95 mask is legit?
There are multiple tests that you can run easily on your mask to check if the KN95 mask you are buying is counterfeit or real. Some of the tests are listed below:
- Activate a lighter and put it 6 inches away from your mouth while wearing a mask. Try extinguishing the lighter by blowing. If the flame blows out, the mask you are using is a counterfeit. The legit KN95 mask is made of breathable mesh nylon that comes with inhaling and exhaling resistance, so it would not be possible to blow out the flame with a true KN95 mask.
- If you have a sweetener available at home, take that and lay it out on a flat surface. Put your mask and try to exhale the sweetener. If you are able to smell the full force of sweetener, your KN95 mask is of poor quality or fake. On the other side, if you can smell the sweetener faintly, that means your KN95 is legit as it can filter 95% of particles.
- Take some water and pour it in the mask cup (hold the mask facing up to make the cup). If your mask doesn’t leak, your KN95 mask is original and laboratory standard because an authentic KN95 mask has a barrier to protect from splashes of liquids.
- Check if your KN95 mask has loops or headbands. Laboratory quality KN95 masks have headbands for a tighter fit, unlike surgical masks.
- KN95 respirator is not suitable for children. If your KN95 comes with instructions that claim to be approved for children, it is probably a fake mask.
- An authentic KN95 mask doesn’t come with any decorative patches or pieces, such as sequins or fancy prints.
- If you see, NIOSH misspelled or no NIOSH markings on your mask at all, steer clear from such masks as obviously something is fishy.
- Look out for an approval number (TC). It is provided either on the FFR or on the headband of the mask.
- If the logo given doesn’t match the official logo of NIOSH, the mask is definitely fake.
- An original KN95 respirator comes with instructions or manuals. So, if yours doesn’t contain that, it is most probably a counterfeit.