Making your own totobobo filters?

April 7, 2015 11:45 PM

I live in a city with lots of traffic and air pollution, and I cycle to work in heavy traffic. I started wearing a Totobobo face mask while cycling to reduce the amount of gross stuff I'm forced to breathe during my commute. Thing is, those damn little filters look the same as a cotton pad, but they are 10-20x more expensive. Has anyone tried making/DIYing their own Totobobo filters?

Or, anyone with scientific opinions on how bad/good of an idea this would be?

posted by edarrow to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (3 answers total)

I really doubt that something that looks like cotton wool looks the same as cotton wool under a microscope. Have you seen this page comparing pollution masks? They all have different efficiencies, which answers your question.
posted by gorcha at 6:28 AM on April 8, 2015 [3 favorites]

Great link, gorcha, and the answer seems pretty clear - you'd be much better off (both money-wise and lung-wise) with a 3M 9501 than with a Totobobo.
posted by clawsoon at 7:39 AM on April 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

Some masks and respirators are made to pass government standards. If cotton pads met a standard, they'd be used.

DIY? With a sharp disk cutter of the correct size, one could punch disks out of a reusable mask. I don't know if that would that be cost effective.
posted by Homer42 at 10:47 PM on April 11, 2015