What should you do with your mask when you're not wearing it on your face?

This is a question that we are increasingly led to ask ourselves: what to do with your mask when you are not wearing it? Compulsory in France in all public places closed since July 20, and imposed outside in more than 250 municipalities on August 4 in order to protect the French from the transmission of Covid-19, the protective mask clutters our hands. in all the moments when we withdraw it.

In a restaurant, sitting alone at your desk, eating a bite to eat on the train, leaving a store... Everyone has been able to experience one of these situations. Without knowing exactly where to put his mask. Carry it by hand or around the elbow? Fold it in his pocket? Throw it ?

Your grandma will scream if you throw away the fabric mask she lovingly made for you! », laughs Professor Xavier Lescure, infectious disease specialist at Bichat Hospital in Paris.

The ideal would be to take a different one each time you remove the one you were wearing, to prevent it from being soiled with potential microbes. This is what the government recommends on its site: change your mask every time you want to drink or eat. But in practice, it's mission impossible, comments Xavier Lescure. Not to mention that we risk running out of stock if we all start throwing away our masks! So what to do?

Some useful solutions

To protect yourself and others, the rule is simple: as soon as you handle your mask, especially when removing it, you must wash your hands afterwards. At the restaurant or at your office, you must therefore bring your hydroalcoholic gel to practice this little routine.

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Once this first step has been completed, there is no real miracle recipe, only hygienic recommendations or common sense. Rolled up in the bottom of your pocket, as if hanging around your chin, it's useless, says Xavier Lescure. The best thing is to put it in an airtight bag or box while you take it off, to avoid soiling the inner part of the mask that touches the face.

It is also possible to wear it on the elbow, so that the internal part of the mask sticks to our body, –but it still depends on where you hang your elbows, nuance Xavier Lescure. Folding it neatly in the pocket or folding it in the hand, the two internal surfaces glued to each other, are possible options.

Applying these little routines helps not to exhaust stocks according to Professor Xavier Lescure. Just like drying your mask after use: I suspend it for several hours, without the internal surface being in contact with the external surface and I then take it back, recognizes the infectiologist of the AP- HP.

To avoid throwing them away, it is also possible to wash fabric masks: in the machine, with conventional detergent, for at least 30 minutes, according to the standardization association Afnor. But even these hand-sewn masks are not infinitely washable: 5 to 20 washes maximum according to Afnor. This is impossible in the case of surgical masks, which must be thrown away in a hermetically sealed bag after use.

Towards systematic mask wearing?

The emergence of new clusters is pushing some, like epidemiologist Catherine Hill, to advocate systematic mask wearing, which is much less tedious than all these recommendations. The message should be simple: “Wear a mask when you are outside. Full stop! » she assures France Info .

“Just like changing it every time you remove it, keeping it permanently is just as impossible, counterbalances Xavier Lescure. But we can limit hygiene mistakes: for example, if you walk down the street, and enter four different stores in ten minutes and take off your mask each time, you might as well keep it on your nose.

To do the best, you have to judge each situation and get used to the routine of wearing the mask: remove it by the elastics to take it off your face, wash your hands, fold it well, store it in a closed box or sachet, unfold it correctly and apply it again on his face without touching the internal part, which will touch the face.