N95 masks comply with NIOSH (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health) standards and can filter 95% of non-oily particles with a diameter of 0.3 microns or more in the air. As long as it meets the N95 standard and passes the NIOSH test, it can be called an N95 respirator.
The N95 masks in the United States are mainly industrial protective masks, which meet the NIOSH standard. For some dusty working environments, N95 masks can prevent the inhalation of harmful airborne particles, and N95 masks also have a good protective effect on mountain fire smoke pollution. Therefore, it is easier to buy N95 masks in hardware stores and home improvement stores. If a friend wants to do carpentry or cement mixing at home, he can also consider wearing an N95 mask for protection.
What is the difference between N95, R95 and P95 masks?
N95 is one of NIOSH's particulate filter respirator protection standards. "N" means not resistant to oil, "95" means that the filtration efficiency is above 95%. In addition to 95, there are N99 (filtration efficiency not less than 99%) and N100 (filtration efficiency not less than 99.97%) two grades.
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"R" means certain oil resistance to oil, and "p" means strong oil resistance/oil resistance to oil. Both R95 and P95 masks can filter 95% of non-oily particles and oily particles in the air. R95 masks can last up to 8 hours in an oily particle environment, while P95 masks can last up to 40 hours or 30 days. The r-series and P-series masks are also available in R99/R100 and P99/P100 grades.
It can be seen from the above that N95 is actually the lowest standard among the nine-level dust mask protection standards formulated by NIOSH.
N95 is a standard in the United States. Other countries and regions in the world also have the same type of masks, but with different names. For example, it is also called KN95 mask in China.