Masks delivered to health-care workers in Alberta this week are causing headaches and rashes for some, and don’t adequately seal to protect workers and patients, nurses say.
But the Alberta government says the masks are safe and said calls to nationalize the manufacturing of personal protective equipment (PPE) are politicizing a crisis.
One Calgary nurse, who CBC News has agreed not to identify to protect her employment, said before this week her unit was supplied with procedural masks from Edmonton-based Pri-Med, a company registered with Health Canada that makes medical supplies.
But now they’ve switched to masks from Vanch, a company based in Shenzhen, China, that focuses on radio-frequency identification products but also makes thermometers and masks.
“[The new masks] have gaps along the side, you can’t seal them along your face … because the mask itself is so big and the loops on the side are so big, the seal on the top of the nose doesn’t do anything. You put it on and you smile at your patient and your nose is exposed,” the nurse said.
“They don’t stay in place, they’ve got a funky odour and they’re causing quite a lot of reactions … with these ones, my face is actually burning and swollen.”
She said within about 30 minutes of putting one of the new masks on, she started to feel a burning sensation along the edge of the mask and her airway felt constricted.
She could only handle wearing the mask for about 90 minutes, and her face stayed swollen and felt like it was burning until the following day. She said colleagues have reported similar issues.
She said there are some of the former, Pri-Med masks, available, and those are being prioritized for workers in units with COVID-19 cases and other respiratory illnesses.
“I feel like our lives are obviously worth more than that. And I feel they’re putting us at a needless risk when we had the proper masks that were working…. These particular masks are horrible, horrible quality.”
Dr. Michael Chatenay, an Edmonton surgeon, said the new masks are of substandard quality, which has him worried about other supplies the province is procuring.
“What’s even more concerning is, are the quality of the N95 masks we’re going to be getting, are they going to be of the same quality? The 3M masks we’re getting are very good…. These are the masks that are really important to protect our lives from this virus.”
Health-care workers have shared similar frustrations on social media, with one poster sharing a video of how easily the new procedural mask slips off their nose.
Susan Slade is vice-president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, which represents 95,000 workers in the province, about half of whom work in health care. She said a number of workers have shared similar concerns about mask quality.
“People need these masks right now. They need to be able to wear them and they need to be able to feel safe at work,” she told CBC News.
“It doesn’t matter how many thousands and thousands of masks we can procure…. If they’re not of appropriate quality, what’s the point?”