Graphene-coated Facemasks

I stumbled upon this article date May 5th 2021 titled:

Are graphene-coated face masks a COVID-19 miracle – or another health risk?

To quote in part:

... some mask manufacturers have begun adding graphene coatings to their face masks to inactivate the virus. Many viruses, fungi and bacteria are incapacitated by graphene in laboratory studies, including feline coronavirus.

Because SARS CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, can survive on the outer surface of a face mask for days, people who touch the mask and then rub their eyes, nose, or mouth may risk getting COVID-19. So these manufacturers seem to be reasoning that graphene coatings on their reusable and disposable face masks will add some anti-virus protection. But in March, the Quebec provincial government removed these masks from schools and daycare centers after Health Canada, Canada’s national public health agency, warned that inhaling the graphene could lead to asbestos-like lung damage.

It seems that these masks have been used by children for many months now and who knows what damage has already been done to their young lungs. As this article reports:

Graphene penetrates the blood-air, blood-brain and blood-placenta barriers, and subsequently accumulates in the lung, liver and spleen, resulting in acute or chronic injury. Different organs exhibit different levels of graphene nanomaterial accumulation and clearance. The accumulation of GO in the lungs increases with increasing injection dose and particle size. In the lung, graphene is engulfed by alveolar macrophages and excreted in the sputum via mucosal cilia. Furthermore, 28 days after tracheal instillation, 46.2% of graphene layers may be excreted in the faeces. As graphene can directly act on the respiratory system, research has mainly focused on graphene-induced damage to this system. It was previously reported that, in humans, the majority of inhaled graphene nanoparticles pass through the upper respiratory tract and are deposited in the lungs. As such, the deposition rate of graphene nanoparticles in the respiratory tract is ~4%. Therefore, lung injury is the primary symptom of graphene-induced toxicity, and mice exposed to GO nanomaterials reportedly experienced acute injury and chronic fibrosis of the lung. 

One can only wonder what face masks in other countries have this layer of embedded graphene and what measures, if any, are being taken to address the problem. There are many articles that sounds alerts about the effect of graphene on the lungs. This 2012 article reports:

Graphene nanoplatelets can penetrate deeper into the lungs than their size would suggest, say UK researchers. And once there, the body’s natural defences cannot deal with them effectively. Chronic exposure could therefore lead to inflammation and disease in a similar way to asbestos fibres.

This April 22nd 2021 article in The Brussels Times has more to say about these toxic masks:

Weeks after they were banned in Canada for containing dangerous nanoparticles that caused respiratory problems in schoolchildren, allegedly toxic face masks have flooded the European market and are even being worn by top EU officials.

“Masks are an essential first line of defence, both against the virus and for a lot of professions and professionals who are exposed to toxicants in the air as part of their work,” David Azoulay, Director of Environmental Health at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), told The Brussels Times.

“Clearly masks are essential in the fight against the pandemic. In that respect, we also believe those masks provided and made available to the public should be safe.”

Azoulay and others from CIEL and various leading international health and environmental groups are concerned that this isn’t the case when it comes to millions of masks being shipped to the EU, largely from Chinese manufacturers.

“With the rising demand for masks, a lot of mask manufacturers have been trying to find a market edge,” said Azoulay. “And one of those edges is trying to treat their mask, or build into their mask some kind of virucide, or antiviral component.”

“It has wonderful electromagnetic properties, which is why it’s used in a lot of electronics,” explained Azoulay. “Graphene comes in the form of thin flakes which have very jagged edges. Because it is so thin – just one atom thick – it can serve a role as a sort of molecular knife, slicing through biological membranes it comes into contact with.”

The idea is that when the virus comes into contact with the graphene, it will cut into it and render it harmless.

“But if you inhale some of those particles, once it gets into your lungs it will play a similar role,” Azoulay warned.

Canada distributed the masks to schoolchildren and bus drivers in 2020, and a concerned parent alerted authorities to the risks of its nanographene particles back in January of this year.

Canada banned the masks in March after a risk assessment by Health Canada identified serious concerns.

Sometimes that’s advertised as silver, which has antimicrobial properties. In the case of the masks flooding Europe right now – and the mask EU President Ursula von der Leyen was photographed wearing – it’s graphene.

The wearing of face masks is hazardous even without the addition of dangerous chemicals to them. Despite this, the mantra will continue to be chanted that masks are safe (except for the ones containing toxic chemicals) and are effective in the fight against Covid-19. This is typical of the hypocrisy surrounding the methods to control the pandemic. Clearly, if one needs to wear a mask, then the cloth-based ones are to be preferred.