Demand increasing for non-medical mask filter material

Some Canadian fabric stores are seeing a spike in demand for synthetic materials following new non-medical mask guidelines released earlier this week by Health Canada.

Vickie Quigley owns The Covered Bridge Quiltery in Riverview, N.B. She said she has contacted her distributor trying to source non-woven polypropylene now recommended by Health Canada to be used as a filter in masks.

“If you had something new like this then you have a huge rush of people who will say, ‘I need this product to put in a mask,'” said Quigley.

Demand for non-woven polypropylene is spiking at some fabric stores across the country after the federal health minister recommended earlier this week that face masks be made of at least three layers of fabric, with the middle layer being a filter-type material for added protection.

But Catherine Constantine of Riverview, who has been making cotton masks since the beginning of the pandemic, said she is a little apprehensive about using synthetic polypropylene in her masks.

“I am not sure if that would be safe to have next to your face and be breathing in all day,” she said.

James Austin, the owner of Canadian Fabrics in Amherst, N.S., has been in the textile business for more than 45 years. Austin said medical-grade non-woven polypropylene is used in medical mask production.

“Non-woven are fibres pressed together under pressure and heat and steam and chemicals. Some have chemicals, some do not,” said Austin.

Austin said the higher medical-grade material is tested to make sure that it is safe.

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But he said that most people will have to buy a lower-grade product found in fabric and craft stores, which is also becoming harder to find.

“Our industry, the craft industry, we are not set up as a medical fabric industry so we don’t do tests to see whether or not the fabric can be breathed,” said Austin.

On Friday, chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said a technical team at the Public Health Agency of Canada said the interfacing material is easily accessible and safe to use.

“The unwoven aspect of it is important because that’s how you trap the particles,” said Tam.

Austin recommends that any non-woven polypropylene bought in a retail store be washed to remove any traces of production chemicals that may be left behind.

“Rinse it, wash it, dry it, iron it and put it in your mask,” he said.

Tam said that research at the national microbiology lab shows that cotton is the best material to use on either side of the filter.

“It’s actually really impressive because the virus doesn’t really survive on cotton for very long.”