Coronavirus: How to properly take care of your face mask

MIAMI VALLEY — More people in the Miami Valley are wearing masks, but what should you do with your mask when you are not wearing it?

News Center 7′s Katy Andersen talked to Dr. Roberto Colon, who is the Associate Chief Medical Officer at Miami Valley Hospital, to find out.

Dr. Colon said if you do not wash your mask, after a while, it will smell.

“You’re going to smell there’s something wrong with it – imagine waking up with morning breath every time you put that mask on,” he said. “It could potentially lead to some health problems if it isn’t taken care of.”

Dr. Colon said the best way to take care of your mask is to hang it up to dry after each use, and not store it in a purse of pocket.

“If you’re having contact with a lot of other people and they are potentially breathing and coughing on you, all of those particles that may have come out of those respiratory secretions are going into your pocket,” Dr. Colon said.

If a purse or pocket is your only choice, Dr. Colon recommends bringing a bag with you to put your mask in. He said do not fold the mask in the bag, because it could grow bacteria.  “It’s not a great idea, except when you’re in a pinch, or doing it for a brief period simply because you’re not allowing it to air dry,” Colon said.

News Center 7′s Katy Andersen asked Dr. Colon if someone could get COVID-19 from a used mask.

He responded, “Theoretically, it is possible, and that’s simply because you would be taking on all of those secretions, which is why you want to be washing your hands any time you are touching your mask.”

Dr. Colon recommends washing masks daily. He said you can place them in a washing machine with your clothes or hand wash them using dish soap and hot water.

“If you are using the mask just to go to the grocery, come back, and then you don’t use it for a couple of days – then it might not be necessary,” he said. “I do not recommend, and no one else does, that you put bleach on any of these masks, to clean or sterilize them. That could lead to harmful effects when putting them on.”

But what about the disposable surgical masks?

“These were never intended, when they were created, to be worn for an extended period of time,” Colon said. “As a result, they can be very flimsy. Keep an eye on your mask to make sure it doesn’t fail when you need it most.”

He also wanted to remind people disposable surgical masks can not be washed or cleaned like cloth masks.

Cox Media Group