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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I checked out whether Benehal Tri-fold N95s are as good or better than my go to N95s, the 3M Aura. Spoiler: nope, not for me. But your fit could be different. youtube.com/shorts/9-rhq...

youtube.com

Why Benehal can't beat the 3M Aura

YouTube video by Gerard Hughes

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Valved N95s: are they cooler and less humid than non-valved ones? Maybe not so much according to a 2012 study. The study compared humidity and temperature build up inside of matched pairs of valved and unvalved masks. www.reddit.com/r/Masks4All/...

reddit.com

Are valved N95s cooler and less humid than non-valved ones? Maybe not so much. A 2012 study tells us why.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The "tactical" Parcil T-99 Sentinel half mask respirator. Is it any good? Or is it just for prepper cosplay? I was sent this respirator for review and I tested it with a PortaCount mask fit testing machine to find out. youtube.com/shorts/r8QtZ... 🧵

youtube.com

The black tactical Parcil T-99. Is it a good respirator? I fit tested it to find out.

YouTube video by Gerard Hughes

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Reposted by Gerard Hughes

Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Someone who says they work at Google as a senior software engineer for search says they are fixing the issue. The claim seems plausible, and would explain why some people experienced it and others didn't.

Screen shot of Ahsan Barkati's Twitter post saying "Sorry for the inconvinience. It has been fixed now. Should be rolled out in
an hour or so!
It was one of my dumb experiment to simplify the architecture :( "

Screen grab of a Google search summary that says "Ahsan Barkati - Senior SWE at Google | IIT Kanpur
Mountain View, California, United States • Senior Software Engineer • Google
Senior SWE at Google | IT Kanpur - Experience: Google • Education: Indian Institute of Technology,
Kanpur • Location: Mountain View. Senior Software Engineer ...

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Google has quietly stopped searching by Exact Phrase when you use quotes. Now by default Google will return pages of results you don't want. Google now thinks you use quotation marks for no reason even though quotes have specifically been the correct format for exact phrase searches on Google.

A screen image of results for a Google search for " "most penetrating particle size" site:https://iqair.com "

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

I posted recently about how ReadiMasks have not been NIOSH approved for over a year, a change that ReadiMask did not share with the public. ReadiMask have finally published a public statement: "ReadiMask is open. We plan to restore our NIOSH certification with our next production run..."

A screen shot of ReadiMask's public statement about their Voluntary Rescission of their NIOSH approval. Text of the statement can be found at the link cited in the thread.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

AirGradient is releasing a new portable open source air quality monitor in June. CO2, Particulates and TVOC. And built in GPS to track *where* pollution is bad. 199.00 pre-order price - not including shipping and customs which are calculated at checkout. www.airgradient.com/portable/

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

$5 air quality monitors from Ikea? Should you get one? My local Ikea is selling off discontinued VINDRIKTNING particulate air quality monitors super cheap. I figured I could get one for every room, which could be fun. youtube.com/shorts/6owRP...

youtube.com

Worth it? $5 Discontinued Ikea Air Quality Monitor

YouTube video by Gerard Hughes

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Even after 41 programed don and doff cycles over 41 hours I still couldn't get the wrinkled crepe paper look that 3M Aura straps get when they are worn out and likely to break.

A 3M Aura 9205+ N95 sitting on top of the clamp for a force testing machine. The lone blue strap is slightly stretched out but smooth.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Testing 3M Aura strap creep the low(er) tech way, with a mannequin head and a stretching board with a force sensor. This is to compare if the static stretching board results match the mannequin head results. And to compare how these static results compare to a don and doff cycles every two hours.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

ReadiMasks are no longer NIOSH approved. And haven't been for over a year. Voluntary Rescission of ReadiMask's NIOSH approval was granted March 25, 2025 at the request of Global Safety First, LLC.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Stress testing 3M Aura 9205+ N95s. Over 60 cycles to 3x stretch. No failure. In this test the machine stretched the top headstrap of the aura. To simulating donning, the strap is repeatedly stretched to 3x the relaxed distance. The video is 30x. Cross head speed was 1000mm per minute.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Why you can't trust Amazon reviews of test instruments, part 1000. This pinless wood moisture meter has a 4.6 rating by people who have no idea the product isn't giving them wood moisture readings at all.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Doh! The adventure is over for tonight. Need to debug my programing. I crashed the clamps together during my doff step. I did have a 2 lb pinch force limit set so no harm done. But I will need to start over later this week to figure out what caused the issue with my doff cycle going down past zero.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Sending a 3M Aura on a 40 hour strap stretching adventure. I programed the testing machine to cycle the Aura to 2.5x stretch for 2 hours, then down to 1x stretch and immediately back up to 2.5x. Repeat 20 times. Yay automation!

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Who doesn't want to test N95 straps with a 225 pound programmable force tester!? Is it just me? Sigh. I got this Bad Boy used off of Facebook Marketplace. It can do cyclical and break testing with 1000 Hz sampling. First up, 3M Aura straps.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Dried out nose and lungs from dry cabin air when flying? Would a "humidifier" mask help? Or are they a scam? I got a Facebook ad for the $90 Kuvola mask to trap humidified air to help you breathe better. N95s already do this and they filter air at the same time. reddit.com/r/Masks4All/...

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Some "dust masks" are real particulate respirators, and some are comfort masks for nuisance levels of non-hazardous dust. Using the same terms for both is confusing so I call N95s respirators and try to always remember to include "nuisance" when discussing "nuisance dust masks."

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Respirator manufacturer VitaCore is making sophisticated custom masks from 3D face scans - for CPAP. The technology could also apply to custom respirator masks, and is way more sophisticated than you might expect. vitacore.com/formfit 🧵

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

N95s can lose dimensional stability over time, potentially allowing seal leakage of unfiltered air into the mask. A 2024 study found that 38.7% of N95s tested failed a fit test after a single full work shift.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Some 3M respirator filters are way easier to breathe through than others. 3M won't tell you which ones, so I tested them to find out. Based on the breathability results, I'm going to go with the 2291 Advanced P100s or the 2071 P95s when I need particulate filtration for a 3M bayonet filter mask.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

BreatheX is telling welders to ditch their respirators and wear non-certified BreatheX nostril filters instead. Should they? Nope, nope and nope. 🧵

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

I've just added an hours meter to the @nukit.bsky.social Lantern I was sent. Now I can test the lamp life in a more robust manner.

Photo of a Nukit Lantern with an attached digital hours meter.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Love 'em or hate 'em, there is a great new write up on the hows and whys of bi-fold respirators, the shape most people associate with KN95s by Vasilisnp2. reddit.com/r/Masks4All/...

reddit.com

From the Masks4All community on Reddit

Explore this post and more from the Masks4All community

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

So...this showed up on my doorstep... ...an @nukit.bsky.social Lantern Far UV-C lamp, which can safely sanitize air of germs at UV energy levels that are skin and eye safe for people.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Harvard doctor Paul Sax MD wrote an OpEd in the New England Journal of Medicine to get rid of annual mask fit testing without knowing how mask fit testing works. voices.nejm.org/doi/full/10.... The NEJM needs to vet its OpEds better. And Paul Sax MD needs to learn how mask fit testing works.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Duckbill N95s are super breathable masks that are very protective, but which one is the most breathable? The most breathable one I tested is the 3M VFlex 1804 Surgical Duckbill N95, testing at a very low 57.8 Pascals. Surprisingly, it is thicker than others but still more breathable.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

@adamwong.bsky.social released AirFanta's wearable air purifier to market. It's meant to be used close to your nose and mouth to minimize how much unfiltered air gets entrained with the filtered output. But it is not meant as a 1:1 respirator replacement.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Very cool design features in the updated Torch 2 Far UV light that can safely sanitize ambient air while being safe for people. I like the removable battery and replaceable lamp, meaning that the lifespan of the Torch 2 is not limited to the life span of the lamp or the rechargeable batteries.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Google AI lied to my face about respirator filters. You can't trust AI to give accurate information on respiratory protection I searched for info on the Peke Safety Powercap's filters by product code to find their rating. The confidently wrong Google AI result I didn't ask for told me they are FFP2

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

This popular fan powered respirator isn't as protective as people think. Its European TH1 certification allows up to 10% inward leakage. The Powercap is a legitimate PAPR but not nearly as good as NIOSH PAPRs, or the other two EU PAPR classes: TH2 - 2 % leakage allowed TH3 - 0.2% leakage allowed

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Be cautious in reposting the "time to infectious dose" 2-way masking graphic. It is still true that everyone masking is quadratically more effective than 1 person masking at infection control from airborne disease. But the initial starting point is purely hypothetical for illustration purposes.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Huge 75% off discount on NIOSH-approved strapless ReadiMask N95s. 50 for $18.55 Discount code "NonSmokingZone" Non-affiliate link: alliantbiotech.com/product/read... H/t to u/doililah for the code.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

For many, pseudoscience is comfort. Pseudoscience is easy to do and understand. Science is hard and can give us answers we don't want to hear.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

No. The answer is no. You can't trust UV sanitizers from Amazon. Amazon gave me this one to review. It's supposed to output sanitizing UV-C light, but only gives off UV-A. Which may be a good thing. The FDA warned that UV wands with un-guarded UV-C sources can expose you to unsafe levels of UV-C.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Breathing clean air is as important to your health as drinking clean water. N95s are personal air filters, and they can help protect you from particulate air pollution from wood smoke, and much more. @capublichealth.bsky.social is doing a great job with their public health messaging.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Yeah, that feeling when someone right next to you starts wet coughing over and over, and you wish you were wearing a mask? You wouldn't have that feeling if you had already put on a mask before going indoors around other people during an uptick in infection. Well-fitted N95s etc. work.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Congratulations to OpenAeros on the release of this evolutionary open source instrument. Lab-grade results with open source flexibility and accountability, all at a lower cost that current CPCs in its class. Someday I hope to get my hands on one :-)

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Aaron Collins & the team at OpenAeros have announced the OpenCPC, a continuous duty sub-micron particle counter that is open source. At $5,000 it is much cheaper than closed source models. youtu.be/2OGohkAd2Cg Open source instrumentation fundamental to making science more accesable.

youtu.be

Introducing the OpenCPC!

YouTube video by OpenAeros

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Should you trust N95s to fit well past their expiration date? Depends on the specific model and storage conditions, including how they were stored before you got them and have no way of knowing. This study fit tested stockpiled masks that were from 9 to 13 years old. www.cdc.gov/niosh/media/...

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Amazon has been selling giant boxes of 440 3M Auras as low $27. That's 440 masks for super cheap. But can they really be any good? I bought a case & measured the properties & performance compared to Auras from other sources as part of my Kanro grant for testing respiratory protection Video link ⬇️

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

You know how styrofoam peanuts cling to a statically charged balloon? You can make a solid puck of plastic that does the same thing, but stays permanently charged - it's an "electret," the static charge equivalent of a permanent magnet.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Notoriously thin-skinned pro-Covid doctor Vinay Prasad has gotten YouTube to terminate a critic's entire YouTube Channel by using multiple copyright strikes as a tool of censorship. @mmasnick.bsky.social has been warning us about this type of abuse of copyright for years.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Can you tell scam respirator ads on Facebook from legit ones? I checked out if the fan powered respirator in this ad by PekeSafety is a total scam, an awesome deal, or somewhere in between. Video link in next comment.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Don't get fooled! If you search for "3M Full Face Respirator" on Home Depot's website you'll get fakes and non-NIOSH masks. Weirdly, Home Depot doesn't sell full face 3M respirators, but instead of just saying so you get 1,414 results. The 1st is a fake 3M mask - a generic knock off of a 3M 6800.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Remember back when a bunch of people got discounted new CleanSpace2 PAPRs from Fisher Scientific, but they were all DOA because the non-replaceable batteries self-discharged in storage and permanently died? www.reddit.com/r/Masks4All/... Well, CleanSpace now has a fix for that: It's your problem.

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Does a beard really reduce respirator fit? Yes. Check out this video by Pro Safety and Training in Australia. They fit tested a bearded employee, Dan, before and after shaving. The difference in mask seal is massive. youtube.com/watch?v=dCWo...

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

**Can you** wear a respirator over a beard? Yes. **Should you**? No. You can get some protection from a respirator over a beard, but you won't get the full protection the respirator is capable of, the protection you bought it for to protect your health. youtube.com/shorts/EA-ZK...

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Gerard Hughes @ghhughes.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

Don't use this CPAP muffler. It sheds aluminum shards. (Video link in the next comment.) CPAP mufflers like this one are supposed to quiet the output of noisy travel CPAPs Amazon sent me this one to review. There are two issues to be aware of - metal fragments, and pressure drop.

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