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  Face Masks In New York a lot of people bought face masks from their local hardware stores to deal with particles in the air. The more expensive ones filter out more particles: A N100 or P100 mask will do more than an N95 or P95, although they still filter out a good deal. They won't do much about a biological attack in your neighborhood but can help if you're 30 miles away from one. QCSupply has a good assortment of masks. Gas Masks The September 11 attacks led to a run on gas masks, most of which sold out in the first week. Don't feel too bad. Unlike obvious provisions such as food and medicine, gas masks are only useful in very specific instances. And even then there is unlikely to be enough advance warning to put one on. Nevertheless, the most important factors are a snug, airtight fit and a properly installed filter. There are half-masks that just cover the mouth, but it's a good idea to protect your eyes. Some filters are specialized, filtering out something specific like chemical gasses or nuclear dust. If you want to protect yourself from the most possibilities you'll need an NBC mask, which filters Nuclear dust, Biological entities and Chemical gasses and aerosols. At the newsgroup misc.survivalism there are big arguments over which gas mask is the best, but in the end it seems to be a matter of which one feels the best when you put it on. There are also other considerations; one guy didn't like the US Army M17 mask because he said it made firing a rifle more difficult. You can buy a gas mask designed for civilians for $25 to $35, like the popular Israeli Gas Mask (currently selling on Ebay for $75 and up) although there are $200 military masks which have features like straw adapters so you don’t have to take them off to sip water. You can read the gas mask reviews of a guy named Grunt here. When buying a gas mask the most important thing is to check the expiration dates of the filters and the age of the masks itself. You'll need to check for leaks. One way is to get someone to dip a Q-tip in some banana oil, then have them wave it around your head while you're wearing the mask. If you smell banana then you don't want the mask. According to Maine Military, an Army surplus store, a gas mask won't do you the slightest bit of good. Without knowing what chemicals are in the air and how often your filter needs to be changed, the mask is useless. Until September 11, Main Military mainly sold masks to kids who would use them as Halloween costumes or adapt them for use in smoking marijuana. Supplied Air Respirators Gas Masks won't work if there's not enough oxygen in the air, so the next step up is the Supplied Air Respirator. This is a hood that completely covers the head and a tube that runs to an oxygen tank. You can find one for $500 or so. The EPA has more on these respirators. Vapor Proof Suits One problem with gas masks is they don't protect the rest of your body, and chemicals can be absorbed through the skin. To protect against that you can get a supplied air respirator with a full body suit. You would need a vapor proof suit, which would run you around $1300. This is the kind of setup used by people who have to go into leaking nuclear power plants. In an emergency you'd probably be dead before you got the suit on, but if you want to feel you're as prepared as humanly possible this is definitely the way to go. Top |
