How to safely wear and take off a face mask/respirator:

Putting a face mask/respirator on

Put your face mask or a respirator on only when your hands are clean (washed with hand soap and water, or disinfected).Try not to touch the front part of the face mask while putting it on. For this purpose, use only the ties or elastic bands attached to the face mask or a respirator, and carefully adjust around the nose area if necessary. There should be no gaps between the face and the face covering after putting it on correctly.

Wearing a face mask/respirator

It is necessary to change your face mask or respirator whenever it gets wet (because a damp mask is not effectively protecting you or the others anymore). It all depends on the material the face mask or respirator is made of; however, we recommend changing your mask about every 2 hours and a respirator about every 8 hours.

Taking a face mask/respirator off

Please do not touch the front part of the mask or a respirator when removing it because it may contain droplets with virus and bacteria. For this purpose, use only the ties, or elastic bands attached to the face mask.Please dispose of any used disposable face masks immediately (ideally into the bin placed in front of your house, however, there is no special container for this purpose). Please wash and disinfect your hands afterwards.Please boil your fabric face masks after taking off your face and wash afterwards (you can do this with a hand soap). If you are unable to do this immediately, please place your face mask into a sealable plastic bag and disinfect your face mask when possible. You can find how to do this below.

Please do not use disposable protective aids repeatedly. They lose their filtering effect when getting damp. It is possible to remove virus and bacteria by disinfecting, however, it is impossible to renew the filtering effect. By disinfecting the filtering effect can be also decreased. It is possible to use fabric face masks repeatedly, however, it is vital to disinfect them regularly.

How to disinfect your face mask?

It is possible to wash your face mask in a washing machine. To increase the effectiveness of the face covering we recommend to:

1. Wash your face masks separately from your other clothes.
2. Wash your face masks with a standardly used laundry detergent, you can also add a special laundry disinfectant or bleaching products.
3. Use a boil wash washing machine settings. The virus will be killed after washing at a minimum temperature of 60°C and the minimum amount of time of 30 minutes.
4. Dry your face masks after washing them (you can also use a tumble dryer), and iron your face mask with a steam ironer. Please use as high temperature settings as possible.
5. Always handle your face masks with clean hands, cleaned with hand soap, or disinfected.
6. Keep your clean face masks separately (e.g. in an airtight container).

Or you can also boil wash your face masks. How to do this?

1. Place your face masks in a pot of water, put them completely in the water, and boil for at least 5 minutes.
2. Leave the face masks to cool down in the water.
3. Take your face masks out of the water and leave them to air dry. Iron your face mask with a steam ironer. Please use as high temperature settings as possible.
4. Always handle your face masks with clean hands, cleaned with hand soap, or disinfected.
5. Keep your clean face masks separately (e.g. in an airtight container).

In the first step, alternatively, you can also use a bucket/pot. Boil the water in a kettle and pour the water over the face masks placed in the bucket/pot.

What on the other hand does not work as a disinfectant?

• Ironing itself. If you only iron your face masks without washing them first, it is not certain you will get rid off all the virus and bacteria. Therefore, please wash or boil your face masks first.
• Using a freezer. COVID-19 is pretty resistant to low temperatures. For that reason, it will not kill the virus. You will also risk contamination of the food placed in your freezer.
• Using an oven or a microwave. By placing your face masks into the oven or microwave, there is a risk of fire. For that reason, we do not recommend trying this at home.