MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — Amazon stopped selling a brand of surgical masks after Mecklenburg County bought 200 of them and discovered they failed to meet safety expectations.
An internal email shows the county bought four sets of 50 disposable surgical masks on Amazon in April from a company called SZ-Facemask. Due to the pandemic, a county employee tested the masks for FDA Guidance and quality, comparing them to masks already in use at its "respiratory etiquette stations," before providing the new masks to staff.
After the tests, the employee raised concerns about water beading on the inside of the Amazon mask, unlike the county's existing masks. In an email shared with one of the county's assistant health directors, the employee warned if the wearer sneezes, "whatever lands on the mask, sits there and has the potential to run out." She also questioned a lack of labeling and overall mouth coverage.
"Stopping close to the edge of the chin, the (wearer) could possibly speak and the mask would ride up-it happened to me..." she said. "...Because of the pandemic, we most certainly don't want this to occur and staff begins tugging on the mask to keep pulling it down thus possibly contaminating themselves."
An Amazon spokesperson said the company has since taken action against the seller.
"Amazon requires that sellers provide accurate information on product detail pages and put processes in place to proactively block inaccurate claims about COVID-19 before they are published to our store," the spokesperson said. "We've also developed specific tools for COVID-19 that run 24/7 to scan the hundreds of millions of product detail pages for any inaccurate claims that our initial filters may have missed. The product in question has been removed and we have taken action on the bad actor that supplied it."
Peter Jobst with Virginia Tech has tested his fair share of masks. He said surgical masks are his preferred face covering when close to others, but said any mask is better than no mask at all.
"I would just wear them," he said. "We're not wearing them for ourselves. We're wearing them for our community."
Jobst said a little water beading on the inside, which he found on his mask too, doesn't really bother him.
"The blue side is more water repellent, the white side is less water repellent," he said. "If you sneezed into this mask, it should hold that material. It's not that water repellent that it's not going to hold it."
He said the material in between the blue outside and white inside is what really matters.
"That is where all the work happens," he said. "I'd look for a mask that has multiple layers."
If something seems off, like it did for the county, he said don't be afraid to find the next best thing.
"In my opinion, if you have a good supply and you find something that's of the question, pitch it and use something better," he said.
A spokesperson confirmed the county bought the four sets of 50 masks for $122.28 and received a full refund.
MORE: FDA mask guidance
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