I think face mask wearing while driving is absolutely insane, as the reduced levels of oxygen can lead to lowered concentration levels, which in my opinion equals dangerous driving. Here is my letter to DVLA. I expect no response.
I wonder whether vehicle insurance companies would void an insurance claim where an accident occurred because its policy holder was face mask wearing while driving. Will it take a driver face mask wearing while driving to bump the bumper of a DVLA employee to get these face masks BANNED while driving? I have to wonder!
Vehicle Customer Services,
DVLA,
Swansea,
SA99, 1AR
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am raising concerns of dangerous driving regarding people who are wearing face masks while driving their vehicle. I am not sure if you are aware, but it is not safe or healthy to be wearing face masks for longer than thirty minutes, let alone for hours day. They are a breeding ground for bacteria, and one study on cloth masks found that they increased the risk of infection.
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/5/4/e006577.full.pdf
Conclusions: This study is the first RCT of cloth masks, and the results caution against the use of cloth masks. This is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety. Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection. Further research is needed to inform the widespread use of cloth masks globally. However, as a precautionary measure, cloth masks should not be recommended for HCWs, particularly in high-risk situations, and guidelines need to be updated.
Once an infected person has breathed inside the mask, that mask is contaminated and can contaminate those around them.
https://www.aier.org/article/the-year-of-disguises/
One of the big mistakes by modelers is the concept of a face covering or mask as a “barrier.” I see many references to so-called “experts” who make this claim. This is completely false. No face covering or mask is a barrier. Either they do not know what they are talking about or they are misleading people.
Masks and “Face Coverings” ARE:
- FILTERS, not barriers. They FILTER only the things that they are designed to filter, to a level of efficiency based upon design, usually not at 100% efficiency. For example, the N95 mask is designed and rated to filter particles greater than 300 nm at 95% efficiency (note: there are masks with greater efficiency than 95%, such as the N99 and NHEPA, but these are very expensive).
- Bidirectional, or two-way street flow (unlike my respirator above). That means the air is intended to go in and out through the same place – breathe in, breathe out. The filtering ability affects both ingress and egress, but MOST are intended to be used towards ingress, i.e. to protect the wearer (Surgical masks are the exception).
- Designed for normal breathing patterns, not exertive force (although the Surgical mask has a pressure rating). This is an important point!
- NOT designed to filter infectious agents but rather inert particulates (except the Surgical mask which is intended to preserve a sterile/sanitary operating field).
- Designed for minimal usage time. They are NOT intended to be stuck on your face for hours.
I understand the psychological crutch that people feel with something covering their mouth/nose. I am sorry, but that is a false sense of security. Perception is NOT reality, just like the neutrino. The mind says that you have some solid thing covering your mouth and nose but that is not really the case, it is porous; things get through (or go around)..
The wearing of face masks deliberately reduces oxygen levels, contrary to what the Government guidance says, and this reduction in oxygen causes permanent neurological damage in the brain.
“The reinhalation of our exhaled air will without a doubt create oxygen deficiency and a flooding of carbon dioxide. We know that the human brain is very sensitive to oxygen deprivation. There are nerve cells for example in the hippocampus that can’t be longer than 3 minutes without oxygen – they cannot survive.
The acute warning symptoms are headaches, drowsiness, dizziness, issues in concentration, slowing down of reaction time – reactions of the cognitive system.
However, when you have chronic oxygen deprivation, all of those symptoms disappear, because you get used to it. But your efficiency will remain impaired and the under-supply of oxygen in your brain continues to progress.
We know that neurodegenerative diseases take years to decades to develop. If today you forget your phone number, the breakdown in your brain would have already started 20 or 30 years ago.
While you’re thinking that you have gotten used to wearing your mask and rebreathing your own exhaled air, the degenerative processes in your brain are getting amplified as your oxygen deprivation continues.
The second problem is that the nerve cells in your brain are unable to divide themselves normally. So in case our governments will generously allow as to get rid of the masks and go back to breathing oxygen freely again in a few months, the lost nerve cells will no longer be regenerated. What is gone is gone.
Oxygen deprivation reduces concentration, and I am sure that you would agree that the driving of a vehicle requires 100 percent concentration at all times.
As a driver myself who does not wear a face mask at the wheel, it unnerves me when I see a person behind me at the wheel wearing a mask. They have been told to wear a mask to protect from a virus, but why are drivers wearing them while alone? It makes no sense, and the neurology experts know their field with the human brain, and masks reduce concentration. This is evidence of a dangerous driver.
I am concerned for the safety of drivers going forward. Perhaps one day when there is a driver behind you wearing a mask at the wheel who slams into you because of their reduced concentration levels, perhaps this will help you to make sense and actually ban the wearing of face masks whilst driving a vehicle.
There are already enough dangerous drivers still using their mobile phone at the wheel, and now we have people who have gotten used to wearing a mask who are unknowingly permanently damaging their brains through the reduced oxygen levels, and to allow this to continue is utter madness from the DVLA.
Then again, our UK Governments have been following a bias narrative for seven months, funded by scientists and ‘experts’ with a conflict of interest in vaccinating the entire population against a virus that has a 99.7 percent survival rate.
I am not sure if the lapsed concentration concern of drivers wearing face masks at the wheel has been raised by other drivers, but it is a concern of mine as a UK driver, and it should be yours too as a Government agency. I am not expecting a response.