The current health situation due to the coronavirus has made dozens of companies have decided to get their share of the slice with masks and items designed to preserve people's health. It is a fact, there are more than a hundred stores on pages such as AliExpress with masks, visors and protective screens with personalized prints and different levels of protection. The question of these types of articles has to do precisely with the real security they offer. Is it really reliable to buy masks online, and more specifically, on AliExpress? Let's see what the experts say.
The craziest things you can buy on Aliexpress
Be careful with KN95 masks
For some time now, KN95 certified masks have emerged as the best alternative to European FFP2s. In fact, they are the most common type of mask in most stores present in the Asian giant.
In theory, this type of mask offers a level of particle filtration of up to 95%, as its name suggests. Just yesterday, the Medical Writing website published a list of all the masks that currently fail to comply with the level of protection they promise. Of all the KN95 certified masks we can conclude that most do not meet the percentage promised by the Asian certification .
The average percentage ranges from 50 to 65% in the best of cases , figures that are far from the 95% promised by the standard. To this must be added that the KN95 certification is not regulated in Europe, so it has not been possible to verify whether the KN95 comply with the conditions imposed by the health requirements of the European Union.
Not all that glitters is gold
In the original article of Medical Writing, the disclosure portal published another list with several masks that do not have the indicated certificate and that are also a copy of other masks that in theory do comply with the filtering level of the certification. Among them, several are 3M certified KN95, KN90 and KN95 .
And it is that although they have the CE labeling, the truth is that they do not comply with the certification of the European Union . From tuexperto.com we recommend you take a look at the original article of Medical Writing to know the complete list of masks that do not comply with health recommendations.
Patterned masks serve to show off and little else
So is. Most masks that feature image and texture patterns lack any certification. Many of these masks only have a single fabric to protect us from external agents . It goes without saying that they lack a filter, something that is quite common in masks designed for children and infants.
And not to mention delivery times
It is not something that takes us by surprise. AliExpress delivery times range from 2 to 3 weeks to a month and a half or 2 months . As much as the store is committed to shipping as quickly as possible, the average shipping time ranges from the figures just mentioned.
Conclusion, cheap can be expensive
Playing with health can be quite expensive. And not only in economic terms. From tuexperto.com we strongly recommend going to pharmacies or specialized stores to buy masks that comply with current legislation. As they are regulated by the Ministry of Health itself, the price per unit is much cheaper than what we can find in certain AliExpress stores.