Filter Face Masks and their Ratings

These are the common ratings you will come across in most hardware stores...ok lets go

N SERIES

N95 N99 N100

The N series are not oil resistant they can only protect against solid and liquid that do not contain any oil particles.

R SERIES

Resistant to oil, solid, liquid and aerosol particulates that contain oil. 8 hour service life before it needs to be replaced.

P SERIES

Contains the exact same features as the R SERIES but has a work-time of 40 hours before replacement is needed.

Remember higher the N number smaller the particles it can filter out with at least a 99.997% efficiently.

P-100 filter will block 99.9% of particles .3 microns or larger.

So what the heck is a Micron?

Micron is the measure of length used to describe a tiny particle size. Micron is actually a commonly used shorthand for micrometer. A micrometre is defined as one-millionth of a meter, a little more than one twenty-five thousandth of an inch.

Here are the most common micron size particles

Mold Spores- 3 to 40 Microns

Household Dust- 0.5 to 100 Microns

Bacteria- 0.3 to 60 Microns

Viruses- .005 to .3 Microns

Smoke Particles- 01 to 4 Microns

Pollen- 10 to 1000 microns