FFP masks: What is important when buying and manufacturing them

On 18 Jan­u­ary 2021, Bavaria intro­duced manda­to­ry FFP2 masks in super­mar­kets and pub­lic trans­port — oth­er Ger­man states are now fol­low­ing suit with sim­i­lar reg­u­la­tions. It should come as no sur­prise that sales of FFP2 and FFP3 masks have soared in recent months, but with an extend­ed FFP2 mask require­ment into every­day life, sales will con­tin­ue to rise. This mask require­ment will open doors in sev­er­al direc­tions. On the one hand, it will pro­tect the pop­u­la­tion from the fur­ther spread of Covid-19, while allow­ing some com­pa­nies to expand their prod­uct port­fo­lio. On the oth­er hand, how­ev­er, there is also the dan­ger that coun­ter­feit­ers will take advan­tage of the des­per­ate sit­u­a­tion and put harm­ful masks on the mar­ket. This means that not only end con­sumers run the risk of buy­ing coun­ter­feit goods, but also hos­pi­tals and com­pa­nies some­times have to equip their staff with FFP2 and FFP3 masks and can equal­ly fall vic­tim to fraud­sters — the con­se­quences of using coun­ter­feit res­pi­ra­tors can be dev­as­tat­ing. The range is large, there are many dif­fer­ent types and des­ig­na­tions of face masks, so it is dif­fi­cult to keep track. So how can you tell if it is a fake?
The dan­ger of coun­ter­feit FFP2 masks
In addi­tion to hos­pi­tals and busi­ness­es, con­sumers will now increas­ing­ly stock up on FFP2 masks before they end up with a res­pi­ra­tor short­age. This can lead to rushed online pur­chas­es as going to the phar­ma­cy or shops is avoid­ed if pos­si­ble. Espe­cial­ly with online pur­chas­es, the pos­si­ble authen­tic­i­ty of FFP2 masks can only be checked to a lim­it­ed extent. How­ev­er, super­mar­kets have also made erro­neous pur­chas­es in the past and thus unin­ten­tion­al­ly put coun­ter­feit goods into cir­cu­la­tion. Users of FFP2 masks under­stand­ably assume that they are now ade­quate­ly pro­tect­ed against aerosols and virus­es. But non-com­pli­ant FFP masks lull the user into a false sense of secu­ri­ty. Pro­tec­tive bar­ri­ers do not stand up to rec­om­mend­ed use, the masks soak through more quick­ly or they do not fit prop­er­ly, allow­ing virus­es to enter at open points. Poor­ly made masks can even intro­duce tox­ic fumes into the res­pi­ra­to­ry tract. For some com­pa­nies, how­ev­er, the ris­ing demand is also an oppor­tu­ni­ty to retool pro­duc­tion lines and expand into a new mar­ket — again, this should not be rushed and should be well researched.
Detect coun­ter­feit FFP masks: The be-all and end-all for health
It is dif­fi­cult to tell with the naked eye whether a res­pi­ra­tor real­ly offers the desired pro­tec­tion and is effec­tive. Before FFP masks can be placed on the mar­ket in Europe, test­ing bod­ies car­ry out so-called con­for­mi­ty assess­ment pro­ce­dures to cer­ti­fy the pro­tec­tive per­for­mance. The Euro­pean PPE Reg­u­la­tion (2016/425) reg­u­lates the exact labelling require­ments for respirators.
If you want to recog­nise whether it is a coun­ter­feit FFP mask, it is first worth tak­ing a look at the CE mark­ing. If the CE mark is miss­ing alto­geth­er, you should refrain from buy­ing and using it. Adja­cent to the CE mark, the test cen­tre (4‑digit num­ber) must be list­ed. In Ger­many, there are cur­rent­ly two recog­nised test cen­tres, one is Dekra Test­ing and Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion GmbH with the test num­ber 0158, the oth­er is the Insti­tute for Occu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health of the Ger­man Social Acci­dent Insur­ance (IFA) with the num­ber 0121. If the num­bers shown on your mask dif­fer from these, you should check the num­ber of the test cen­tre. In the past, fic­ti­tious num­ber com­bi­na­tions have been used or test­ing bod­ies have been indi­cat­ed that do not car­ry out the con­for­mi­ty assess­ment pro­ce­dure for FFP masks — an overview of all test­ing bod­ies approved in the EU (Noti­fied Bod­ies) can be found here. Make sure that the words “Per­son­al Pro­tec­tive Equip­ment” (PPE) are writ­ten under the test body. In addi­tion to the CE mark­ing, there must also be a CE cer­tifi­cate; here you should insist on a Euro­pean test pro­to­col and not trust the state­ments of the seller.
Anoth­er sign of infe­ri­or mask qual­i­ty is poor­ly leg­i­ble or smeared labelling — here, the cor­rect ink is also impor­tant when labelling res­pi­ra­tors. FFP masks are char­ac­terised by the fact that they absorb mois­ture very slow­ly, which means that water-based inks lead to smeared labelling. FFP masks require fast-dry­ing ethanol-based inks to ensure high-qual­i­ty cod­ing. Putting on and tak­ing off the masks also cre­ates the pos­si­bil­i­ty of users com­ing into con­tact with the mark­ing — so the inks should also meet var­i­ous require­ments to be safe for the user and not cause skin irritation.
Final­ly, the fit of the FFP mask is also impor­tant — if air can get out of the mask through the sides, it will also not pro­vide suf­fi­cient pro­tec­tion to fil­ter con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed air before it enters the mask.
The mar­ket is large — rely on the knowl­edge of experts
At the end of the day, it’s all about per­son­al safe­ty and health. In gen­er­al, hasty or over­priced pur­chas­es should be avoid­ed. To make it eas­i­er for con­sumers, the Fed­er­al Min­istry for Eco­nom­ic Affairs and Ener­gy has launched a match­ing plat­form for pro­tec­tive equip­ment offers, through which sup­pli­ers of cer­ti­fied FFP masks can be found quick­ly and eas­i­ly. If you have already pur­chased FFP masks whose pro­tec­tive func­tion is ques­tion­able, a list of all cur­rent­ly known haz­ardous prod­ucts is also avail­able through the Fed­er­al Insti­tute for Occu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health.
The mar­ket for man­u­fac­tur­ing res­pi­ra­tors can be lucra­tive, but it is imper­a­tive that man­u­fac­tur­ers use high qual­i­ty mate­ri­als and proven labelling tech­nolo­gies and leave noth­ing to chance in order to obtain the nec­es­sary con­fir­ma­tion of con­for­mi­ty from the test­ing author­i­ties. With over 40 years of expe­ri­ence in labelling and mark­ing, our sec­tor experts are here to help.