Originally Posted By: bobcflatpicker
Keith S,

I found one new 3M Cool Flow N95 Pro 8511 respirator in my tool box. I tried to give it to my son but he wouldn't take it. So we agreed that whoever takes it should be the only one who goes out to the store.

My question is, how reusable is it? I know we can't share.

Your thoughts please. I started to send this to you in a message but I thought your answer might be helpful to others.


Bob, I apologize for the tardy response but I overlooked this post somehow.

The best answer I can give you is that under normal circumstances, and for their intended use they were not reusable at all. Under emergency situations I am afraid that your guess is as good as mine. Most people are of the opinion that anything is at least a little better than nothing.

We received a shipment of 8;800 masks in Montgomery last week from the FEMA stockpile that indicates how dicey this mask situation is and how disingenuous some of the finger pointing is surrounding the earlier depletion of the stockpile during the N1H1 crisis. The entire shipment of masks was dry rotted. Every mask that 3M manufactures has a shelf life of 5 years. Every mask in the shipment had expiration dates that occurred back in the Bush Administration. If every mask taken out of the stockpile in 2009 had been replaced, those would be expired now as well.

Keith
2024 Audiophile Windows 11 AMD RYZEN THREADRIPPER 3960X 4.5GHZ 128 GB RAM 2 Nvidia RTX 3090s, Vegas,Acid,SoundForge,Izotope Production,Melodyne Studio,Cakewalk,Raven Mti