Evaluation of respiratory protection of contagion masks.

There are several types of contagiotn or surgical masks commonly used by physicians, nurses, and biological laboratory personnel to minimize the hazard of the trainsmission of airborne pathogenic microorganisms. As part of a study in which the respiratory protection afforded by various commercially available masks and respirators was evaluated, three represenitative types of contagion masks were itncluded. Since contagion masks are so widely used, the results of the evaluation of these masks should be of interest to personnlel in the medical and biological fields.