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Since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic there has been the increase demand for N95 masks in the market. There is proof that Indian markets are filled with Fake N95 masks.

The Covid-19 pandemic has hit all of us. With the outbreak of pandemic India ad almost most parts of the world were in a lockdown. And now that the lockdown has been slowly lifting, one essential without which citizens cannot step out of theirhomes or in any public place is masks. Mainly people areseen wearing surgical masks and cloth masks which are now being available everywhere. With the sudden demand for masks came shortage of the products. N95 masks or respirators are mainly used by healthworkers to prevent from the airborne particles.

And suddenly India was seen with a shortage of N95 masks. Tata Memorial Centre, which is a major cancer hospital in Mumbai, was also seen facing shortage issues of the N95 masks from the regular manufacturers. The regular providers of N95 masks to India are an American firm called 3M and Mumbai based firm called Magnum health and Safety.

As Tata Memorial Centre was facing shortage from the regular manufacturers, they had to shift to other brands available in the market. For that they just did not buy any product available right away without testing. Tata Memorial Centre asked Arnab Bhattacharya to come into the picture.

Arnab Bhattacharya is a self-acclaimed Mask crusader as he likes to call himself. He is a physicist by profession at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai. The hospital asked him to test the available masks and respirators to see if they are actually effective, like the providers claim.

N95 respirators originally filter 95% particles which are larger than 0.3 microns and thus the name N95.

Arnab Bhattacharya and his team started testing the N95 masks available in the Indian market in their lab. They could not locate a ready-made mask tester but found a new way to do so. They made an air pollution monitor and tested their device on the established mask manufacturer and found the device to be trust worthy.

Later Bhattacharya and his team began testing the monitor other N95 masks available in the market and found out that the respirators of this mask was not even close to 95% as the N95 mask is supposed to be. The masks were of poor quality and could filter only 60 to 80% of the 0.3 micron particles. This does not only put healthcare workers at risk but also the people who are buying these masks when the manufacturers are providing them with guarantee.

N95 masks usually use electrostatic charge to trap tiny particles and most of these fake N95 masks were claiming that they are washable and are also doing false advertising of products like telling that they are certified when they are clearly not.

Arnab Bhattacharya did not expect such appalling results as most of the masks available in the Indian market were not upto the started and had the ability to be risky and infecting other in the same way.

Some of the masks claimed to be certified by some agencies which do not certify masks in any way. No masks were tested before being available in the market.

The quality of these N95 masks was compromised in every way possible, Bhattacharya after realizing that started educating other health workers on the same. He started conducting webinars to make the people and the experts understand the fraud behavior of the manufacturers.

COVID-19 has become the reason for the surge in demand for N95 respirators. Subsequently, many manufacturers with little experience in making t with which manufacturers who have no experience in the respective field started taking advantage of the Supply and demand circle to produce masks that weren’t effective and for use at all. 150 manufacturers have been seen all over India in the past few months and some of them are counterfeiting the products with popular brand names.

Fake masks have the power to put risk of front line officers lives and that is not something we need. The law makers should take action against these faulty mask makers and the consumers need to be aware of the product they are using. Manufacturers should also have the masks tested before having them available in the market for consumer use.

By Deepika Agarwal