“I’m Adam. I’m 12 years old and I have a lung disease called bronchiectasis. I got it from a Swine Flu infection when I was 6 months old. Since then, I’ve been on a daily therapy of medication and physio. So you can imagine my daily life looks different from my peers. Over the years, I learned to live with it. But, since coronavirus spread, I’m even more aware of the threat and the risk for all kids like me. It makes me uncomfortable to see people wearing masks that don’t fit, and I even struggle to find ones that fit me. When my friend Jeffrey came over with a 3D scanner as a birthday surprise, I asked him to scan my face to see if we could mold a 3D mask that fits. Then we had a brilliant idea. Why not do this for others too? There are lots of people who don’t fit into the standard sizes. We called it the MASKADAM, A Deliberately Alternative Mask”
Help protect those who are the most vulnerable
People at high risk feel very unsafe and unseen. They are the most isolated, especially in the long term. The more of us who stand together and help these people feel safe in their communities, the quicker they will reintegrate into society. Wear MASKADAM to show these people you care.
Show the world that you don’t agree with exclusive standardisation
People are not aware that standardization kills. Of all deadly car accidents, women are 17% more likely to die according to researcher Caroline Criado Perez. Testing labs give accreditation based on safety tests performed on much taller male test dummies. Reproduction provides a lot for a few, just to fit into our industrialization process. There is no room for personalization or meeting specific needs. So all this waste and only protecting 10% of the population!
Stop the misinformation that polarizes our communities
The high-speed rate of information circulation makes fake news easy to create and spread – it’s hard to find accurate and complete information that we can trust. The lack of truth makes polarization stronger, which can have social and psychological consequences. We see people criticizing each other for their daily actions. This makes it difficult for us to stand up for ourselves, either due to the false sense of protection given by misinformation, or the lack of knowledge that would empower open, informed dialogue.
We design a lot of our daily-use objects for white males. All test labs use the middle-aged Caucasian males as their standard – from car crash test dummies to ISO norm mask design. Scientifically, if you don’t fall into that category, current standard masks don’t really protect you. Standardization is not protecting 90% of the people, and with this crisis, that is a matter of life and death.
Because the virus travels in a respiratory droplet that is only 3 micron in size, it can go through any of the materials we use in our daily lives, except for the high FFP2 or FFP3 made from the meltblown polypropylene. So when the mask does not fit the face appropriately, any opening bigger than 0,003 mm is large enough to let the virus in.
Any protection is better than no protection, because it reminds us that the virus is still there. However, insufficient coverage of the face will give you a false feeling of safety and protection. Through standardization, we only protect 10% of the population, the measures put people at risk who don’t fit the standard.
* 90% of the population is out of the spectrum – so be proud to wear the mask and show the world you’re aware of it.
* MASKADAM is a statement and a symbol for solidarity.
* Show the world you want a post-corona life in a less polarized world.
“Being a lung patient always made me feel different from the rest. During corona, being part of a risk group made me feel anxious and excluded, even more than I was before. Thanks to MASKADAM, I realized that other people are vulnerable too, but they don’t know it. Now, by wearing my MASKADAM, I want to make other people aware that I’m at risk, and share with other excluded groups that they are not alone.”
People at risk are not a minority after all
