Home Article Yes or no, can surgical masks be washed?

Yes or no, can surgical masks be washed?

The more the weeks go by, the more you learn to live with a mask on a daily basis. At the start of the school year in September, the Academy of Medicine taught us that it was useless to wash fabric masks at 60°C. This time, the consumer association UFC-Que Choisir announces on its website that surgical masks, normally intended to be thrown away after 4 hours of use, retain very good filtration capacities after 10 machine washes at 60°C.

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But the day after this announcement, the Directorate General for Health (DGS) reiterated its initial recommendations: "In principle, and according to the recommendations of the High Council of Public Health, single-use surgical masks must be thrown in a trash can after use. The DGS explains, however, that "work is underway in France to study whether possible reuse is possible, guaranteeing their efficiency and their filtration capacity".

Even washed, they remain more effective than a cloth mask

For its own test on the filtration capacities of disposable masks, UFC-Que Choisir bought 3 models of surgical masks in parapharmacy and in supermarkets, and put them to the test in the washing machine.

Yes or no, can we wash surgical masks?

"In new condition, the 3 masks stopped more than 98% of particles larger than 3 microns, well beyond the 90% of the most filtering fabric masks. After 10 washes, and as many passages in the dryer and gentle ironing at the lowest iron setting, their filtration capacities remained at a sufficient level for consumer use: 100% for one of the surgical patients, 90% for the second and 98% for the comfort mask" explains the consumer association.