Gaiters do no harm: WVU toxicologists find coverings help contain the spread of exhaled droplets

Experts with the West Virginia University Center for Inhalation Toxicology found that – assuming it’s a good fit - a gaiter will, despite recent reports, provide a respiratory containment of exhaled droplets comparable to a common over-the-ear cloth mask.

“Nothing is 100 percent effective,” said Timothy Nurkiewicz, director of the WVU Center for Inhalation Toxicology, or iTOX. “But we all need to be wearing masks to protect those around us. If we can properly educate people in this regard, we consider that a win.”

While gaiters, like most masks, do not provide filtration/respiratory protection to the user from inhaled aerosols, they did afford opposition to the spread of exhaled droplets, according to tests conducted at the WVU Inhalation Facility. This means that the gaiters work more effectively shielding others from the wearer’s exhaled air.

“We’ve been operating on the principle all along that anything is better than nothing,” said Nurkiewicz, also chair of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology.

A viral mask study that has filled news cycles and social media feeds prompted iTOX to conduct its own tests. The study in question claims that a gaiter, a stretchy fabric that hangs around the neck and covers the mouth and nose, could be worse than wearing no mask at all, and that instead of blocking droplets that may contain SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), gaiters split large droplets into an array of smaller droplets.

In his analysis, Nurkiewicz referenced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which illustrates that when droplets pass through pores of fibrous materials such as those in masks, one of four outcomes occur as supported by existing literature: inertial impaction, interception, diffusion and electrostatic attraction.

Read the full story from University of West Virginia here.