YOU MAY NOT BE ALLOWED ON YOUR NEXT FLIGHT IF YOU’RE WEARING THIS.
As a variety of COVID restrictions have come and gone and are available back again, one has remained consistent: you want to wear a mask on airplanes. This requirement was instituted by many airlines early within the pandemic to stay aviation safe, and government agencies around the world have doubled down on this with their own mandates. Airlines have issued fines, pulled passengers from planes, and even canceled entire flights as a result of people flouting mask rules over the last year. Now, some companies are taking their mandates even further by banning one sort of mask altogether. Read on to seek out out what face-covering could keep you from being allowed on future flights.
Some major airlines have banned cloth masks on planes.
Cloth masks are widely employed by people around the world since the start of the pandemic, becoming particularly popular when medical masks were briefly supplied for frontline workers. But this sort of face-covering may not cut it in certain situations. consistent with Travel + Leisure, many major international airlines now ban masks made up of cloth fabric, including Finnair, Air France, Lufthansa, Swissair, Croatia Airlines, and LATAM Airlines. These airlines are only allowing other, simpler tasks, like N95 masks, KN95 masks, surgical masks, and respirators without exhaust valves.
Airlines say that cloth masks aren’t sufficiently protective.
Finnair is that the most up-to-date airline to possess banned cloth masks on Aug. 13, stating that the face-covering isn’t protective enough. “The safety of our customers and employees is our first priority. Fabric masks are slightly less efficient at protecting people from infection than surgical masks,” Finnair said during a statement.
A recent study being peer-reviewed for publication within the journal Science and pre-printed early Aug. 13 backs this up. Researchers for this study analyzed quite 340,000 adults from 600 villages in rural Bangladesh, finding that cloth masks didn’t perform in the same way as surgical masks. The study authors said that while they found “clear evidence” that surgical masks are effective at reducing symptomatic COVID, they might not say an equivalent for cloth masks. consistent with the study, surgical masks had a filtration efficiency of 95 percent, while cloth coverings were only 37 percent effective.
“While cloth masks clearly reduce symptoms, we cannot reject that they need zero or only a little impact on symptomatic COVID infections,” the authors wrote. “Surgical masks have higher filtration efficiency, are cheaper, are consistently worn, and are better supported by our evidence as tools to scale back COVID-19.”
YOU MAY NOT BE ALLOWED ON YOUR NEXT FLIGHT IF YOU’RE WEARING THIS.
As a variety of COVID restrictions have come and gone and are available back again, one has remained consistent: you want to wear a mask on airplanes. This requirement was instituted by many airlines early within the pandemic to stay aviation safe, and government agencies around the world have doubled down on this with their own mandates. Airlines have issued fines, pulled passengers from planes, and even canceled entire flights as a result of people flouting mask rules over the last year. Now, some companies are taking their mandates even further by banning one sort of mask altogether. Read on to seek out out what face-covering could keep you from being allowed on future flights.
Some major airlines have banned cloth masks on planes.
Cloth masks are widely employed by people around the world since the start of the pandemic, becoming particularly popular when medical masks were briefly supplied for frontline workers. But this sort of face-covering may not cut it in certain situations. consistent with Travel + Leisure, many major international airlines now ban masks made up of cloth fabric, including Finnair, Air France, Lufthansa, Swissair, Croatia Airlines, and LATAM Airlines. These airlines are only allowing other, simpler tasks, like N95 masks, KN95 masks, surgical masks, and respirators without exhaust valves.
Airlines say that cloth masks aren’t sufficiently protective.
Finnair is that the most up-to-date airline to possess banned cloth masks on Aug. 13, stating that the face-covering isn’t protective enough. “The safety of our customers and employees is our first priority. Fabric masks are slightly less efficient at protecting people from infection than surgical masks,” Finnair said during a statement.
A recent study being peer-reviewed for publication within the journal Science and pre-printed early Aug. 13 backs this up. Researchers for this study analyzed quite 340,000 adults from 600 villages in rural Bangladesh, finding that cloth masks didn’t perform in the same way as surgical masks. The study authors said that while they found “clear evidence” that surgical masks are effective at reducing symptomatic COVID, they might not say an equivalent for cloth masks. consistent with the study, surgical masks had a filtration efficiency of 95 percent, while cloth coverings were only 37 percent effective.
“While cloth masks clearly reduce symptoms, we cannot reject that they need zero or only a little impact on symptomatic COVID infections,” the authors wrote. “Surgical masks have higher filtration efficiency, are cheaper, are consistently worn, and are better supported by our evidence as tools to scale back COVID-19.”
No U.S.-based airline has banned cloth masks yet.
It’s not yet clear whether any major U.S.-based airlines will imitate in banning cloth masks, but it’d be worth preparing for, consistent with Fast Company. In fact, there are various sorts of face coverings already not allowed by a number of these airlines. Although Delta Air Lines states that “cloth masks with tightly woven fabric are still permitted,” it currently prohibits passengers from wearing bandanas, scarves, masks with exhaust valves, and any mask with slits, punctures, or holes. United Airlines says that bandanas aren’t permitted, and notes that a “face shield alone doesn’t count as a face covering.” Both Southwest and American Airlines have also banned balaclavas, bandanas, and scarves.
The TSA recently extended its federal mask mandate.
U.S. airlines could implement a ban on cloth masks a while this year because the federal mask mandate for airlines has been extended. This order was first implemented in January and set to expire on May 11 before being extended to Sept. 13. But on Aug. 20, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced that it might be extending the federal mask requirement once more, this point through Jan. 18 of next year. “The purpose of TSA’s mask directive is to attenuate the spread of COVID-19 on public transportation,” a spokesperson for the administration told Business Insider.
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It’s not yet clear whether any major U.S.-based airlines will imitate in banning cloth masks, but it’d be worth preparing for, consistent with Fast Company. In fact, there are various sorts of face coverings already not allowed by a number of these airlines. Although Delta Air Lines states that “cloth masks with tightly woven fabric are still permitted,” it currently prohibits passengers from wearing bandanas, scarves, masks with exhaust valves, and any mask with slits, punctures, or holes. United Airlines says that bandanas aren’t permitted, and notes that a “face shield alone doesn’t count as a face covering.” Both Southwest and American Airlines have also banned balaclavas, bandanas, and scarves.
The TSA recently extended its federal mask mandate.
U.S. airlines could implement a ban on cloth masks a while this year because the federal mask mandate for airlines has been extended. This order was first implemented in January and set to expire on May 11 before being extended to Sept. 13. But on Aug. 20, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced that it might be extending the federal mask requirement once more, this point through Jan. 18 of next year. “The purpose of TSA’s mask directive is to attenuate the spread of COVID-19 on public transportation,” a spokesperson for the administration told Business Insider.