With the emergence of the novel coronavirus, personal protection has become a part of our daily life. Wearing face masks, sanitizing and washing hands, and observing social distancing have become common practices. Moreover, with the increasing infection rate, the demand for personal protective equipment has also increased greatly. People, healthcare professionals, and organizations require a large number of masks and PPE kits, and that too on an urgent demand.
Taking advantage of the current situation and this high demand, many fraudsters have come forward with counterfeit products and are scamming the general public. Recently, news has surfaced that federal and state governments of many countries, especially the USA have grappled a huge counterfeiting ring that has already distributed around 10 million fake N95 face masks around 5 states. The ones caught by the officials have been seized and banned.This risky fraud and scam have put forward an ultimate need for educating people about face masks and how to differentiate between a real and fake one. To serve this purpose, this article brings to you some amazing tips and tricks to identify if your masks labeled "N95 face masks made in USA” are genuine or not. So, let’s begin. Check for NIOSH’s labelNIOSH or the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health has recently generated a guide for how masks can be spotted that are not NIOSH approved. The clear distinction between the fake and real ones is that originally NIOSH-approved respirators have an approved label on them or within the packaging. The label might be on the box or the user's instruction. If not found anywhere, check the FFR-filtering face-piece respirator for an abbreviated approval. Now that you've found the approval number, verify it through NIOSH Certified Equipment List (CEL) or a trusted source page of NIOSH. You would know if the mask is NIOSH-approved or not. Look for the following signsWhen you’re buying an N95 face mask made in USA, there are certain signs that can let you know that if a respirator is counterfeit or not. So, when buying one, look for the following signs.FFR markings: If the filtering face-piece respirator (FFR) of your mask doesn’t have any markings on it, it is possibly fake. TC number on the headband or FFR: If your mask has no approval (TC) number on it, it is fake.The absence of NIOSH markings is another sign of fake masks.Many fake masks have NIOSH spelled incorrectly on them, look for that as well.If the mask, you’re buying, has some decorative fabric or any other decorative add-on like sequins, it is likely to be fake.If the product claims children approval from NIOSH, it is absolutely fake. This is because NIOSH never approves any kind of respiratory protection for children. Some additional tipsWhen buying a face covering, especially respirators, check for respirator approval markings e.g. correct exterior markings on NIOSH-approved filtering face-piece respirator graphic. Plus, when it comes to third-party marketplaces, please examine their transaction history and feedbacks. On their websites and links to buy, check for their past sales and read what their previous customers have to say. Look for the high or low periods of transaction and the seller's marketing trendy or same products all the time.As a sincere recommendation, we would suggest you buy N95 face masks from https://medicalsupplyall.com/ They have the best and genuine products and can surely be your go-to retailer in times of emergency.
