Surgical mask clips

According to the directions issued by the World Health Organization (WHO), surgical masks are essential personal protective equipment (PPE) against Covid19 and other viruses. The protection provided by these masks highly depends not only on the efficiency of the filter media but also on the level of the leakage around the face/mask interface1,2,3.

The metal clip that most of the surgical masks provide aims at reducing this leakage at least on the upper level of the mask. However, after a while this clip may loosen and a gap appears letting non-filtered air enter inside the mask. This may result in another well-known problem that of glass fogging (steaming up glasses).

Recently studies1 imply that gaps (as caused by an improper fit of the mask) can result in over a 60% decrease in the filtration efficiency. In an effort to reduce particle leakage between the face and the mask, we introduce a clip of various sizes, that adapts well to the human nose following its curves. The curve