Cloth face coverings and masks should be washed and sanitized after each use, recommended Brian T. Sansoni, Senior Vice President of Communication department at the American Cleaning Institute.
According to Brian, in order to maximize the effectiveness of your face mask, it’s important to keep it clean after every use.
On the other hand, the director of the House keeping Institute of America, Coroline Ford has also instructed how to wash a reusable mask. According to her, the paper filter inside the mask should be removed before cleaning it.
The fabric masks are machine washable and can be sanitized easily compared to the hand-made masks, added Coroline. Hand-made masks should be soaked in water for at least 20 to 30 seconds before washing it under clean water with hands and then should be dried properly in order to reuse. One need to wash his/her hands properly after washing the used face masks, she suggested.
Coroline also shared tips to remove stains from masks. In order to remove tea and oil stains, enzyme less Stain Removers should be used. Whereas, to remove stains of sweat and other protein substances, enzyme added Stain Removers should be used. Similarly, rubbing alcohol could be effective to remove make-up stains from face covers and masks.
Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic is now a major threat to global health. The fear of COVID-19 brought many of us to better sanitization practices and usage of face coverings which are an additional step to help slow the spread of the deadly virus. Thus, not washing the masks could be again threat for many other diseases as the outer portion of it is exposed to dust directly.
Experts also suggest that people should make or buy two or three cloth masks which can be switched out when one is being sanitized.
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