Tracking the next pandemic: Avian Flu Talk |
" Skyrocketing Demand for Masks " |
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Posted: March 16 2006 at 3:15pm |
U.S. Respirator Manufacturers Concerned About
Meeting Skyrocketing Demand for Masks Needed for Avian Flu WASHINGTON, March 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The Coalition for Breathing Safety warned today that respirator manufacturers' ability to meet growing demand for respirator masks driven by the avian flu threat is jeopardized by an ongoing avalanche of spurious silicosis lawsuits. The Coalition urged quick passage of federal legislation to protect respirator manufacturers and sellers against baseless and frivolous lawsuits and litigation fraud in order to help address the potential shortage of N95 respirators, a key component of the "social distancing" strategy U.S. government officials are counting on enacting in the event of an avian flu pandemic. Despite the fact that the U.S. government sets strict design standards for respirators, conducts tests to ensure those standards are met, and approves respirators and the warning labels placed on them, respirator manufacturers are engulfed in a wave of bogus silicosis lawsuits filed by trial lawyers claiming defective design or failure to warn users. The lawsuits also ignore the fact that manufacturers cannot affect how or when the respirators are used. Between 2000 and 2004, more than 300,000 claims were filed against five respirator manufacturers alone. Although these claims are routinely dropped, dismissed, or settled for very small amounts, respirator manufacturers' litigation costs in 2004 consumed 90% of the gross revenues earned from selling the products. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have recommended the use of government- approved respirators (N95 or better) to protect poultry workers and other individuals involved in responding to an outbreak of avian influenza. Public and private sector health experts have concluded that the first line of defense if avian flu begins infecting humans will be "social distancing," and that NIOSH-approved respirators will be essential to fighting the flu pandemic. The Department of Health and Human Services recently announced a request for proposals for 50 million N95 masks. "Respirators are taken for granted as an essential component in protecting the public and health care workers in the event of an avian flu pandemic," said Daniel K. Shipp, President of the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA), a member of the Coalition for Breathing Safety. "During the SARS scare, which never reached our shores, demand for respirators stretched available supply. Preparations for an avian flu pandemic have already caused demand for respirator masks to skyrocket. If there's an outbreak, demand will be exponentially higher. Companies will have to ramp up production to meet this demand." Shipp continued, "Yet, without some protection from the flood of bogus lawsuits, many manufacturers will face a hard choice. Do they make the capital investment necessary to expand capacity when they are risking more groundless lawsuits every time they market their product? Faced with this situation, some manufacturers have already withdrawn from key industrial markets." Last week, the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing probing into allegations of misconduct by doctors and plaintiffs' lawyers in silicosis lawsuits. The allegations stem from Texas Federal Judge Janice Jack's 2005 findings that diagnoses forming the basis for thousands of individual claims in eight states were "fraudulent." Judge Jack found that these diagnoses "were about litigation rather than health care" and "were driven by neither health nor justice: they were manufactured for money." The Coalition for Breathing Safety supports legislation introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate to protect respirator manufacturers and sellers against baseless and frivolous lawsuits and litigation fraud. Respirators are 100% regulated by the U.S. government in that all significant aspects of respirator design, manufacturing, and labeling are regulated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a U.S. government agency. The legislation would protect manufacturers only if their products are certified as complying with U.S. government design standards and warning label requirements imposed by NIOSH. "The members of our coalition are working around the clock to produce respirators, but the costs of administering thousands of claims -- even if it's only to determine that they have no merit -- total tens of millions of dollars each year," continued Shipp. "The industry desperately needs protection from baseless, mass tort claims to allow companies to focus on the business of making respirators, and meeting the avian flu challenge." The Coalition for Breathing Safety was formed in 2004 to ensure that millions of emergency responders, workers and citizens across the globe continue to have access to respiratory safety products. The Coalition is seeking a federal solution to protect companies that make these products from the hundreds of thousands of lawsuits now threatening their availability. DATASOURCE: Coalition for Breathing Safety http://freeserve.advfn.com/news_U-S--Respirator-Manufacturer s-Concerned-About-Meeting-Skyrocketing-Demand-for-Ma_1463750 0.html |
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They are putting in extra manufacturing lines, next year. |
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Better start putting on 3 shifts if they haven't already.
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I am glad I came to this forum.... Since I've been here, I've started stocking up on food, water, vitamins/herbs, tamiflu, zithromax, asthma inhalers, am buying a gun in a few weeks, NOW know what a cytokine storm is, got my pneumovax shot for me and my family TODAY (boy, do I feel yucky )............and have stockpiled over 200 N95 masks.
A sincere THANKS to all on this forum. Now, back to stockpiling............ sheesh, this seems to be a never ending task!! |
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xxooss
Valued Member Joined: March 16 2006 Status: Offline Points: 1 |
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I just ordered 300 masks from here...
http://www.library-dust.com/3m_8000.htm best price I have found so far. Will update when they arive |
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I have close to the same amount of masks, along with some child-sized ones("small"). I also picked up a portable generator. Fortunately I live close to a bulk-food store. Keep in mind that any extra masks will have greater bartering value during a pandemic than, cash, stocks or gold. |
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calendula
Valued Member Joined: February 18 2006 Status: Offline Points: 345 |
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Marzin: I am glad this forum has helped you stay informed and provided you wi th lots of great info and suggestions. |
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I am not here to reason, I am here to create"
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Guess they are getting all thier ducks set up in a row..
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RebeccaS
V.I.P. Member Joined: March 13 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 41 |
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Where do you get the child sized ones. I didnt know they had them.
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-SCARED IN CONNECTICUT
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TERMS 1
Adviser Group Joined: March 13 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 172 |
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This folks have large, medium, small, extra small (children?) and low profile. Just type in N95 into their search box. |
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Credibility is like virginity, once it is gone- it is gone forever.
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Mtn. Man
V.I.P. Member Joined: March 15 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 40 |
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Great link, thanks.
I went to Home Depot in Camarillo CA. today. They had N95 filters in abundance. |
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Business is great, People are terrific, Life is wonderful!
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Ont. nurses want better masks for avian flu
Updated Sun. Mar. 19 2006 11:33 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff Ontario nurses say the federal government wasted money by purchasing standard surgical masks incapable of blocking avian flu. "It was two of our nurses who died during the (SARS outbreak)," Lesley Bell, of the Ontario Nurses Association, told CTV News. "We're just saying we don't want to go through that again. Let's make sure that the nurses and health care workers who are on the front lines are protected." The government bought 4.5 million standard masks for about 10 cents each. Ontario nurses say the masks are inadequate protection against avian flu, and the government needs to buy N95 surgical masks at about 10 times the cost. Nurses demanded and received N95 masks three years ago during Toronto's SARS outbreak. The World Health Organization recommends the N95 mask as protection against both SARS and avian flu. The mask has become popular in the United States, where they are mailed to relatives living in countries affected by the virus. "They came in a bought cases at a time, and they would ship them home to their families," Home Depot worker Jake Zacharias said.The government says there is no evidence to show N95 masks are more effective at blocking the virus than standard surgical masks. "There is certainly confusion, in the health care community, and globally, about how this disease is transmitted, and what the optimal method of protection is," said Dr. Arlene King, a microbiologist at the Public Health Agency of Canada. The N95 masks are manufactured in Quebec, but have to be pre-fitted for every user and can only be worn for a few hours. Dr. Donald Low, a microbiologist, said that N95 masks also become useless if the user touches them, adding another problem. "In some circumstances they may be no better than a surgical mask, and in some cases they may even be worse," she said. However, Ontario's nurses say the government is simply interested in saving money, not which mask is more effective.Meanwhile, Israel confirmed its first outbreak of the H5N1 strain Sunday – the worst mutation of the virus. (The above was featured on Canadian TV. They also featured a clip talking about the high demand for masks in the U.S. Corn has posted picture elsewhere showing the inovative new masks that were purchased by the Canuks. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060319 / bird_flu_060319/20060319?hub=Health |
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Kirby
Valued Member Joined: March 02 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 129 |
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Surgical masks are designed to stop the wearer from expelling organisms. N95 masks are designed to stop the wearer from inhaling organisms. The discrepancy occurs due to no one can agree if this virus will actually be droplet (large particle) spread and use of surgical masks by the sick person and the care giver is adequate to prevent contamination by contact of large droplets into the mouth/nose of the caregiver. If it is airborne (which I think they suspect or already know), the N95 mask or greater is required for the care giver to stop inhalation of organisms. TB is airborne but all is required of the patient with active TB is a surgical mask; however, care givers must wear N95 or better. I think this is why the govt. is anticipating ordering both surgical and N95 masks. They are unsure and it looks to me (IMHO) that they are basing it on the TB guidelines. |
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My understanding is that the the size of the virus is much smaller than the pores of the mask, but too large for the water droplets to penetrate, which the virus usually hitches a ride on. The N95 provides extra protections designed to function better by stopping some of the smaller droplets and by being more resistant to moisture. The few studies I've seen on it's use with SARS seem to support this. |
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The Montreal Gazette
Published: Thursday, March 23, 2006 Mirabel-based Triosyn Corp. is ramping up production of its patented T-3000 and T-5000 anti-microbial face masks amid rising global concerns about tuberculosis, SARs, avian flu and the threat of bioterror. In clinical trials,Triosyn's face mask has proven to be more effective against airborne diseases than the masks currently recommended by the World Health Organization against SARS and avian flu, among other illnesses. Called N-95 masks, they are considered sufficient to block 95 per cent of particles 0.3 microns in size or larger. Triosyn's product, a fitted mask with a polymer lining treated with an iodine-based compound, is one hundred to one thousand times more effective in trapping and killing harmful micro-organisms and is effective longer than the competition, according to tests conducted by France's Pasteur Institute, the U.S. Air Force Research Labs and Health Canada, among others. That efficiency has caught the attention of authorities in the U.S., where Triosyn operates a manufacturing plant in Williston, Vt. It also has factories in India and Thailand. The Vermont plant is currently running two production lines, but the company has been asked to add five more lines to respond to growing American demand for equipment to be stockpiled in the event of an avian flu pandemic. To date, 200 people around the world are known to have contracted a strain of bird flu, and half of them have died. (Yesterday, a report in the journal Nature downplayed threat of the disease being spread by coughing or sneezing, which could lessen the likelihood of a pandemic.) Triosyn is excited by the growing interest in its product, which is currently being stocked by the Canadian Department of National Defence, various detachments of the RCMP, the House of Commons, various police departments, including Montreal's, and the U.S. Defence Department. The company is suddenly the focus of attention of venture-capital firms eager to fund its expansion. Triosyn was founded in 1992 by Pierre Messier, an entrepreneur who previously worked as a consultant to municipalities on water-purification issues. He remains the company's largest shareholder with a 20-per-cent stake. Other backers include VantagePoint Venture Partners, a U.S. venture-capital firm, and Collers, a British fund. While the company does R&D in Mirabel, manufacturing is done in Vermont, which allows the company to tap into lucrative defence contracts. That Triosyn has an ally in Vermont - Senator Patrick Leahy, a member of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee - doling out money hasn't hurt. Triosyn's order book stops short of Health Canada, however. The federal department is instead stockpiling up to 4.5 million surgical masks as part of its influenza pandemic preparedness plan and has set another 95,000 N-95 masks aside in strategic locations across the country in the event of an avian flu crisis. Some healthcare workers are rebelling against the plan, including the Ontario Nurses Association, which is demanding that the government is cheaping out, and putting lives at risk, by providing surgical masks instead of N95s. Surgical masks cost pennies apiece, and N95s cost about a dollar each. Triosyn masks cost between $5 and $6 each. Others are also speaking up, including microbiologists who challenged a Health Canada representative at last week's meeting of the Canadian Association for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Triosyn has leapt into the fray, hoping to persuade Health Canada to adopt its product instead. "Surgical masks are crap and everyone knows it," said Claude Neunlist, Triosyn's director of international sales. That view was echoed by Dr. Raymond Tellier, a microbiologist at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, who is critical of Health Canada's mask policy. "Sending health-care workers to work with surgical masks is akin to sending soldiers into Iraq with BB guns. It isn't good enough," Tellier said. The flu is spread by droplets from coughs and sneezes, surface contact and from aerosolized vapour, which is breathed deep into the lungs "where the flu likes to live best," he said. A spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada, spearheading the federal government's avian flu response, refuted that, as it did last week at the microbiologists' conference. "The flu is not an airborne disease. It does not float around in the air. It is spread by droplets," said Shirley Paton, a nurse and infectious diseases specialist with the agency. She said the avian flu strategy in place is the correct response for the time being, but that health-care decision makers will meet in June again to review the situation. That leaves the door open a crack for a possible policy change. Triosyn is waiting in the wings. mlamey@thegazette.canwest.com http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/business/story.html?id=4795ed4a-4164-49cb-80b9-2637bd9c93a6&k=15064 |
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Tue Mar 21, 5:51 PM ET
Experts struggle with issue of what medical masks to stockpile for a pandemic ATLANTA (CP) - The issue of medical masks - who should use them, and what types should be stockpiled - is one of the vexing and potentially explosive questions facing public health experts working to prepare for a possible flu pandemic. With precious little science to go on and in the face of the strong probability of a global mask shortage, they are struggling to craft recommendations that strike the best balance between the ideal and the feasible - without a clear picture of what either will be when the next pandemic hits. Speaking on the wings of an international conference on emerging infectious diseases, experts readily acknowledge a global wave of illness could place modern day standards of infection control out of reach. "If this thing rages for a year, all of this is academic, all of these stockpiles. Because we're going to burn through all of that. So we have to have plans," said Stewart Simonson, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health. "Health care may end up looking, for a little while . . . more like the '50s. And we may run out of rubber gloves. So we're going to have to have some way for people to sterilize their hands so they can safely do things. We've got to start thinking that way, I think." Weighing on the minds of those deliberating is the fear that, while health-care workers will be desperately needed during a pandemic, some may refuse to show up for work if they feel they are not adequately protected. Ontario nurses are already raising the issue, complaining that the federal government is stockpiling inexpensive surgical masks rather than the more costly N-95 respiratory masks. The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control currently recommend N-95 masks for health-care workers treating the rare but dangerous human cases of H5N1 avian flu. But neither group has issued recommendations on what they think should be the standard when the next pandemic hits. Coming up with those policy recommendations is challenging. There is almost no scientific evidence on whether wearing a mask cuts transmission during a flu pandemic. Pandemic strains of influenza are rare, they are different from annual flu strains, and they are different from one another. And modern protective devices weren't available during the last pandemic in 1968. "It's just not settled the role that small particle aerosols" - the form of transmission best protected against with an N-95 mask - "will play in terms of a pandemic strain," said Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's division of global migration and quarantine. Policy makers who are accustomed to issuing evidence-based recommendations are in the uncomfortable position of trying to find novel ways to devise guidance that is more than mere guess work. Some are scouring medical histories, original source material from past disease outbreaks and even historical fiction looking for clues about how effective measures like the wearing of cloth masks across the face were during earlier outbreaks of infectious diseases. "I find it very useful, not as a case control study, but as a historical reference point to study some of the original records from the various pandemic experiences and see: What did societies do?" Cetron said. The Institute of Medicine, experts who advise the U.S. government, has been asked to investigate whether it would be feasible to develop reusable cloth masks, made of muslin, for use in a flu pandemic. And those involved in discussions over the use of masks recognize their advice has to cover both what might be best if it is workable, and what might be an acceptable alternative if best isn't available. "It's going to be important to establish the ideal and then plan for the real event," said Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert who has been warning of the amplifying effect the global just-in-time distribution system will have during the next pandemic. "And the real event, we'll be seriously short of many of those essential goods and even some services that we count on on a routine basis," said Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. The WHO faces the additional challenge of making recommendations for the world - for the wealthy G-7 countries, for mid-level economies and the poorest of the poor. Under those circumstances, recommending health-care workers be protected by the Cadillac of medical masks is ensuring the poorest countries can't follow the WHO's advice. "If you take that perspective, it means that a lot of practical considerations have to be on the table as well as scientific considerations. And then you take some mix of those factors to come up with the best guidance that you can come up with," said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, acting director of the WHO's global influenza program. "You don't want to make recommendations that are simply the ideal. You want to make recommendations which are practical. They're usable. They're feasible." http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20060321/ca_pr_on_he/pandemic_medical_masks |
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asatrape
Valued Member Joined: March 16 2006 Status: Offline Points: 110 |
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If you need masks, and you cannot find them at the regular stores,
please, look on Ebay. You can get a great deal on them now, but
soon I think the prices will spike. There are masks to be had,
you just have to know where to look.
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