FACE MASK STUDIES SHOW HARM
This page contains 19 studies about the side effects and health implications of wearing masks.
Each study reference below includes the title of the study, a brief summary of the study findings, links to the original source of the study and where possible a button to download the study in PDF format directly from this site. The link icon under each study number is a permalink to that specific study. You can copy and share the permalink and it will open this page and scroll directly to the specific study number.
Face mask side effects include lowered oxygen levels. This study proved that surgeons that wore a mask in surgery for an hour + had significant reductions in blood oxygen saturation. This is relevant because most of us are being made to wear face masks at work for the whole shift, long journeys on public transport, and when we are in a public places doing shopping etc. and this requires a degree of exertion that is not taken into account.
“Considering our findings, pulse rates of the surgeon’s increase and SpO2 decrease after the first hour”
Decreasing oxygen and increasing carbon dioxide in the bloodstream stimulates a compensatory response in the respiratory centers of the brain. These changes in blood gases result in increases in both frequency and depth of breaths. This exposes another risk – if your mask traps some virus you are breathing more hence increasing viral load and exposure.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18500410/
Full study (behind paywall): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1130147308702355
Ask people if they have issues breathing in these masks. anecdotal or not, as everyone is different. “The results showed that each evaluation index was significantly different (P < 0.05) among different test masks”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31280156/
Full study (behind paywall): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969719330360
“The benefits of using N95 mask to prevent serious emerging infectious diseases should be weighed against potential respiratory consequences associated with extended N95 respirator usage.”
“CONCLUSIONS: Breathing through N95 mask materials have been shown to impede gaseous exchange and impose an additional workload on the metabolic system of pregnant healthcare workers, and this needs to be taken into consideration in guidelines for respirator use”
Yet we force pregnant women to use them…? What could this do to the fetus?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26579222
Full study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4647822/
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“Healthcare providers may develop headaches following the use of the N95 face‐mask. Shorter duration of face‐mask wear may reduce the frequency and severity of these headaches.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16441251/
Full study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7159726/
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“Conclusion: Most healthcare workers develop de novo PPE-associated headaches or exacerbation of their pre-existing headache disorders.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32232837/
Full study: https://headachejournal.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/head.13811
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“Of the 8 symptoms recorded daily, subjects in the mask group were significantly more likely to experience headaches during the study period”
“Face mask use in health care workers has not been demonstrated to provide benefit in terms of cold symptoms or getting colds”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19216002/
Full study (behind paywall): https://www.ajicjournal.org/article/S0196-6553(08)00909-7/fulltext
This video shows that even reading a book with a mask on decreases blood oxygen levels to your brain. What implications does this have for developing children forced to wear masks at school etc?
“CONCLUSIONS: In healthy healthcare workers, FFR did not impose any important physiological burden during 1 hour of use, at realistic clinical work rates, but the FFR dead-space carbon dioxide and oxygen levels were significantly above and below, respectively, the ambient workplace standards, and elevated P(CO2) is a possibility”
Remember in “healthy healthcare workers” even their carbon dioxide levels rose. Most of the wider public have at least one health problem. Even healthy people were shown to have elevated CO2 levels above the healthy guidelines.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20420727/
Full study: http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/55/5/569.short
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“The results of the study showed that the most common adverse skin reactions among HCWs using PPE included nasal bridge scarring, facial itching, skin damage, dry skin, rash, chapped skin, and wheals.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32541493/
Full study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7302613/
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“elastics cause constant compression on the skin and, consequently, on the cartilage of the auricle, leading to erythematous and painful lesions of the retroauricular skin when the masks are used for many hours a day. Pre-adolescent children have undeveloped auricular cartilage with less resistance to deformation; prolonged pressure from the elastic loops of the mask at the hollow or, even worse, at the anthelix level can influence the correct growth and angulation of the outer ear.”
Disfiguration in children. Can masks stimulate ear protrusion in children? This is due to masks that are too tightly fitted. Tight masks can also cause tension headaches. Is this healthy for children long term?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32556449/
Full study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7302120/
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“Wearing an N95 mask significantly reduced the PaO2 level, increased the respiratory rate, and increased the occurrence of chest discomfort and respiratory distress.”
And yet, we make sick people wear them. Even people without breathing issues, have lowered oxygen rates.
“It is obvious that the surfaces of the boxes of sterile packed disposable instruments and infusion bottles are not sterile. The disposable surgical masks and surgical caps used for sterile clothing are delivered by the producers not sterile, either.” AND THIS IS HOSPITAL EQUIPMENT.
Bacteria and viruses can interact an increase infection suseptability.
https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1008234
“An attack of the flu can bring on bacterial lung infections; in the USA almost half of all cases of bacterial sepsis occur following viral infections in the lungs.”
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/lab-rat/when-viruses-and-bacteria-unite/
Face mask side effects include altered behavior. Are there negative social consequences to a masked society? This study implies that, yes, masks do cause people to adopt altered behaviours based on mask use.
“Conclusion: Respiratory pathogens on the outer surface of the used medical masks may result in self-contamination. The risk is higher with longer duration of mask use >6 hours”
“Protocols on duration of mask use should specify a maximum time of continuous use.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31159777/
Full study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6547584/
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“Dyspnea variation was significantly higher with surgical mask and the difference was clinically relevant.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29395560/
Full study (behind paywall): https://www.rev-mal-respir.com/article/1210165
“Exercising with facemasks may reduce available Oxygen and increase air trapping preventing substantial carbon dioxide exchange. The hypercapnic hypoxia may potentially increase acidic environment, cardiac overload, anaerobic metabolism and renal overload, which may substantially aggravate the underlying pathology of established chronic diseases”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32590322/
Full study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7306735/
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This study investigates bacteria growth on masks, types of bacteria found and cleaning methods for cloth masks.
“We detected a significant accumulation of bacteria on the cotton mask as well as the surgical masks after 4 h of wearing.”
“Although all self-made cotton masks were cleaned beforehand, a considerable amount of bacteria was still detected”
“accumulation of pathobionts on the masks due to human saliva and exhaled breath represents a possible underestimated biosafety concern”
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.732047/full
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