Dear Reader,
The wearing of a face mask to protect against a respiratory virus is an act of grand deceit. It is a behavior that defies research on the topic. Wearing a face mask, as this article (one of many) points to — is unsafe to do and is ineffective.
Until the narrative around mandatory masking has changed, each day by 6am Eastern, I will both post here and send out a science-based reason why no one should wear a face mask.
I ask that you help me circulate these pieces to those around you who you believe could most benefit from them. It is important not to remain silent on this topic. These are important discussions to be having with friends, family members, business owners, healthcare practitioners, public servants, and others in the community.
-Allan
By the end of April 2020, China was producing 450 million masks daily.1
“Given an annual production figure of 52 billion disposable masks and a loss rate of 3% (the percentage of masks that escape water management systems),”2 Teale Phelps Bondaroff,3 Director of Research for OceansAsia, and his team, concluded, “Nearly 1.6 billion face masks wound up in our oceans in 2020. This amounts to approximately 5,500 tons of plastic pollution.”
That means masks released into the oceans in 2020 alone represent the equivalent of 7% of the 80,000 ton Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a mass of plastic debris that floats in the Pacific Ocean.2
Based on widely available estimates, writer Marcus Lu points to an additional area of concern — the amount of time it takes a single-use face mask to biodegrade:
“Despite their single-use nature, disposable masks are expected to take more than four centuries to decompose while in the ocean. Here’s how this compares to other items we use on a day-to-day basis.”2
It takes 10 years for a cigarette butt to biodegrade, 20 years for a plastic grocery bag to biodegrade, 50 years for a styrofoam cup to biodegrade, and 200 years for an alumnim can to biodegrade, but 450 years for a face mask to biodegrade.2
Garbage in the Pacific was not a prime concern in my life prior to 2020 and it is not now. For those who had that as a prime concern then, but who are now silent on the topic, red flags should be raised about the sincerity of their motivation. The simplest way to alleviate this component of the Pacific Ocean pollution problem is to stop mandating face masks. Given the fact that there is no upside to face mask mandates, this would be a policy move with significant upside.
Those who seek to create more jobs for their environmental policy friends, will instead talk about face mask recapture programs and face mask recycling programs. Such talk is a sure sign that the speaker has no interest in doing the hard work of dealing with the root cause of the problem — the entirely senseless government mandated face mask orders and the corresponding media-driven fear campaigns on the topic.
Despite those sensible or senseless changes at the governmental level, you do not have to comply in your own life. Many people, such as myself, despite my existence in a most locked down place, live a normal life and do not comply. If pollution is a concern of yours, in your own life, you can stop feeding into such madness by no longer complying with face mask orders. Far from being a mere uncomfortable sacrifice that you make to benefit others, face masks are harmful to the life of the wearer, harmful to the lives of those whom it is worn around, and harmful to aquatic life. Better can and should be expected of each of us.
Thomala LL. Daily production volume of medical face masks in China as of April 30, 2020, by type. 2021. Statista. Retrieved from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1094428/china-medical-mask-daily-production-volume-by-type/
Lu Marcus.1.6 Billion Disposable Masks Entered Our Oceans in 2020. Visual Capitalist. 2021. Retrieved from https://www.visualcapitalist.com/1-6-billion-disposable-masks-entered-our-oceans-in-2020/
Oceans Asia. COVID-19 Facemasks & Marine Plastic Pollution. Retrieved from https://oceansasia.org/covid-19-facemasks/
The bestselling book "Face Masks In One Lesson" by Allan Stevo describes how to never wear a face mask again. The follow-up to the book, "Face Masks Hurt Kids," describes why to never wear a face mask again. We must defeat the awful, narrative around the mandates.
Examples of how face masks hurt kids will be posted to the Lockdown Land Substack each morning by 6am Eastern until the narrative around this ineffective and harmful medical intervention has shifted. Face masks are, in fact, not just harmful to children. Face masks are harmful to everyone. Thank you so much for helping me circulate this research.