Mask Brain?
In April of this year, the article above (link is to the abstract) was published in the Journal of Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety. It is entitled “Wearing face masks as a potential source for inhalation and oral uptake of inanimate toxins - A scoping review.”
You can link to the full article from the abstract - it runs to 33 pages.
The piece is a review of 24 studies that address the issue of inhaling toxins while mask wearing. I have in the past brought to your attention some of the downsides of mask wearing as I usually like to analyze both efficacy data and safety data for a medical intervention (addressing the old ‘safe and effective’ argument). I hope that by now most of you are aware of the extreme exaggeration of any effectiveness that has been shoved upon us (first written about by me in November 2021). And hopefully you have also absorbed some of the potential downsides to mask wearing from my prior discussions. I don’t want to exaggerate those, but they do exist and must be recognized (as I have written before).
Now there is one more chink in the safety-of-masks narrative.
As always, logic usually beats studies. And studies are only to be trusted if their results match common sense (a reasonably good rule of thumb). And here we have common sense coinciding with studies … 24 of them.
And as logic might suggest, short term mask-wearing is not likely to be terribly harmful for most of us. But longer term, chronic wearers of masks might want to consider this study (and there are still lots of people who always wear a mask … The whole notion of breathing through a plasticated or even cloth mask all day long makes my skin crawl).
The paper first notes that masks may filter bacteria (they never say viruses -think Covid- for good reason) and other larger particles such as dirt and plastic fibers.
The paper however cautions about other inevitable inhalants. It points to elevated levels of microplastics and nanoplastics in particular, that can be found in many manufactured masks. Also found were “exceedances” for volatile organic compounds, acrolein and phthalates. Other noxious compounds were also mentioned, including heavy metals and titanium dioxide.
Microplastics found in the brain (presumably from drinking water out of plastic bottles and other sources) has been the topic of increased scrutiny just by itself in recent months. In fact microplastics are in the air and water and hence in our food chain. One researcher estimated that the average human consumes about 5 grams of plastic each week (think - eating a credit card every week). I don’t know if that’s accurate but autopsies are finding (if they look for it) up to 0.5% of a brain’s weight is plastic (45-50 year olds). And I doubt that imparts added durability to the brain … but who knows.
I am copying for you here the abstract’s conclusion: “Undoubtedly, mask mandates during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic have been generating an additional source of potentially harmful exposition to toxins with health threatening and carcinogenic properties at population level with almost zero distance to the airways.”
Wearing masks has very little utility unless the mask is actually designed for the purpose at hand. Everything else is a downside. Our expert class has imputed to masks magical qualities that they do not possess. So, many of us end up using them unnecessarily and adding to the overall toxic load that modern living implies … on top of the many other unavoidable (and avoidable) contaminants that we are exposed to.
Mask-brain isn’t really a thing. I made up that term. But masks are most certainly not helping with our overall toxic load.
It seems that we keep introducing more and more artificial toxins into our system via chemtrails, insecticides, household products, engineered foods and so on. Perhaps no single one of these is terribly deadly for most. But the cumulative effect appears to be taking a toll on our health as a nation. We need to be deliberately looking at how to eliminate as many of these agents as possible. Instead we add new health burdens willy-nilly. Every new convenience comes at a cost, often to our overall health.
And we forget the benefits of nature: fresh air, sunlight, hiking. Increasingly we are realizing that nature IS nurture in many instances. We should be harnessing what innate health benefits are ours for the taking.
Are you thinking like I am that maybe what we need now is someone to MAHA - Make America Healthy Again?
In health,
DocofLastResort