In early 2020, we were told to start wearing masks whenever we went out in public to protect us from COVID-19. However, questions immediately began to arise about whether wearing masks makes people safer or creates more problems. Parents also started asking questions about whether children wearing masks could affect their education or social development.
During the pandemic, there were many small studies performed throughout the US at different schools and businesses to see if wearing masks worked at lessening the spread of COVID-19. Many of these studies, such as the one conducted by Research Square, found that wearing masks does not lessen the infection rates of the coronavirus. Larger studies have been conducted like the one the Washington Post did from November 2020 to April 2020 where they found that masks did limit the spread of Covid-19. However, their study was shown to have inaccuracies due to the lack of blind selection of subjects and not requiring a Covid test. This caused there to be more people in the experimental group and inaccurate reports of people having COVID-19. Studies have shown that masks have had little to no effect on infection rates of COVID-19, but are starting to cause more problems in our world today.
More studies are being done on how masks are affecting people’s health and children’s development in schools. According to the Daily Mail, many disposable masks release high amounts of toxic volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) up to 4.8 parts per million. The EPA recommends that companies keep the amount of TOCs in their products below .5 parts per million. TOCs are also 14 times higher than in cloth masks, putting cloth masks at only .34 parts per million. TOCs in products can cause headaches and breathing problems for the users. TOCs in some severe cases can cause organ damage/failure, cancer, and even death. Many mask companies are starting to come out and tell people to air out their masks for about 30-60 minutes before usage. This can affect the cleanliness of masks causing them to be contaminated with all of the particles in the air. This then causes you to breathe in all of the bacteria and viruses in your home.
Masks are not just causing health issues but are also impacting the education of children, especially those from the ages of 6 months to 6 years old. Studies have shown that most children learn how to speak by seeing how other people move their mouths to learn how to say certain words. With the mask in between, this way of communication for young children is disrupted and can cause children to not develop a large enough vocabulary or develop speaking skills.
The second important aspect of development that masks interfere with is discerning different emotions from facial expressions. Humans have been shown to not only use the eyes but the mouth as well to tell what emotion another person is trying to express. With a child only getting information from the eyes, it can cause them to misjudge a person’s emotions. A developing child needs both the eyes and the mouth to develop their social skills. This may impact a child’s social skills as they age because they have not developed the skills properly to know what some expressions mean. There is a way to fix these issues, however! Parents will need to spend more time with their children in places where they don’t have to wear a mask. This allows them to see the mouth and learn from seeing it.
But both of these points ignore the biggest problem that masks, especially disposable ones, are causing in our world today: pollution. According to Visual Capitalist, 1.6 billion masks made their way into the ocean in 2020. This will have a long-lasting effect on the world as the plastics in masks take over 450 years to break down. This means that the impact of our masks will affect the planet for many generations to come. And this 1.6 billion is just a tiny portion of the overall number of masks produced because in 2020 the world as a whole world produced 52 billion disposable masks. That is enough to supply everyone in the world with at least 6 masks and still have billions left over. This number includes all of the KN-95 and N-95 masks needed for hospital workers and recommended by the World Health Organization.
In conclusion, based on the data, masking in general does not make a difference in preventing COVID-19 from spreading, and, in some cases, disposable masks could hurt you more than other cloth masks. Masks do affect the education of young children and could cause difficulties for them as they get older. And if you do wear a mask make sure you and your family use reusable and cloth masks to protect them from harmful TOCs. Along with wearing cloth and reusable masks will cut down on the overall pollution they will create.
