Originally Posted by
erig007
Agreed. There is nothing much we can do about those sub 0.05µm particles other than trying to avoid exposure. At least we can do something about the bigger particles.
You seem to be missing my point. Dust masks filter the large bits, which is good, but they don't work on the smaller particles. Weight-wise, most of the particulate is in the 10µm range. But with regard to the
number of particles, which is the more important number, there are few particles in the 10µm range. The vast majority of particulates is in the 0.05µm range and lower. The masks filter out the big bits but there aren't very many of them. The masks are ineffective against the smaller particles. The masks are a placebo at best.
wolfchild has a very valid point.