The Health Hazards of the Prolonged Use of Surgical Masks and the Science Behind It

This presentation will attempt to explain the possible health hazards of wearing a surgical mask over an extended period and the science behind it. For this, our story begins over 3.8 billion years ago.

During this period, the planet had cooled enough to support life and was covered with a primitive atmosphere produced by the volcanic activity of the planet. This primitive atmosphere was constituted of nitrogen, CO2, methane, water and rare gases.

Certain reactions can occurs naturally in this environment that produces amino acids and nucleotides, which are the building blocks of life. These reactions were demonstrated experimentally by Stanley Miller and Harold Urey in 1952 and is know has the Miller-Urey Experiment.

The first cell, that is the originator of all life on this planet, obtained a molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP) composed of a nucleotide and a chain of 3 phosphates. We know that the first cell contained this molecule because it is common to all living cells on Earth.

ATP is a very important molecule in many metabolic reactions, but its main role is being the cellular batteries. The ATP releases energy when it loses a phosphate and becomes an adenosine diphosphate. The ATP must be regenerated and fermentation is the only method bacteria can use to achieve that goal.

Let’s skip to 500 million years ago: an archaebacteria was swallowed by another bacteria. This archaebacteria was not degraded inside of the bacteria so it started mitosis within the bacteria. This is the first animal cell and it is the ancestor of all animals, plant and fungi on Earth.

After millions of years of evolution, the archaebacteria lost their plasma membrane and became mitochondria. At this point, the 2 cells started to have a symbiotic relation. The mitochondria are organelles that are located near other organelle of the cell that requires a lot of energy.

Its membrane is filled with different co-factors involved in an oxidation cascade designed to isolate protons inside the membrane and to release them through a molecular machine called the ATP syntase. The ATP syntase is a protein that provides the ATD the energy necessary to attach a third phosphate to be regenerated into an ATP.

Let’s explore the oxidation cascade because it is extremely important to understand how the masks could make people sick:

This oxidation cascade is called the Krebs Cycle. Sugars, lipids and proteins are broken down by enzymes to produce acetyl-CoA molecules. The acetyl-CoA is then transformed in a series of substrates by being oxidized by different nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD-) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FADH). This takes place along the mitochondrial membrane. In order to regenerate the NAD- and FADH, the NADH and FADH H+ are oxidized by oxygen. Thus, the protons of the acetyl-CoA end up in the membrane of the mitochondria.

If we talk about efficiency: per glucose molecule fermentation produces 2 ATP molecules and the Krebs Cycle produces 36 ATP molecules. So it is easy to see that the Krebs Cycle is essential to provide the energy sustain multi-cellular life forms. In fact, life would have not evolved pass the prokaryote stage without mitochondria.

If you have survived all this theory, I applaud you. You now possess the knowledge necessary to understand what follows.

The World Health Organization announced recently that wearing a surgical mask all day long does not reduce the oxygen intake of a person and all information contrary to what the WHO says is buried in the internet search, so I had to dig a bit to obtain this information. But seriously, at this point, is there anyone left on this planet, with 2 brain cells to rub together, that still believes the lies of the WHO?

A surgical mask will allow a certain pressure of gas through it. If your employer provides you a mask, the pressure of gas that can go through the mask is, on average, 80 mm/Hg. You can find better mask with 120 mm/Hg, but it is doubtful that your employer will pay for it.

Since the negative pressure when you inhale is greater than the positive pressure when you exhale, there is very likely that the CO2 will get trapped within the mask reducing the concentration of the oxygen intake of consecutive breathes.

The volume of the air intake of a person will vary according to a person’s sex and weight. The volume of air contained in the lungs of a person is almost proportional to his size. This means that the respiratory impairment of a 100 lbs Asian woman is less than the respiratory impairment of a 200 lbs white man using the same mask, because the 200 lbs man needs more than twice the volume of air than the 100 lbs woman, yet the mask online allows a certain air flow.

This knowledge helps us to understand why women seem to struggle less with the mask and are more likely to consider the mask as an acceptable measure.

I wouldn’t be surprised that the research concerning the breathing impairment caused by the mask by the WHO didn’t take that factor into account. It is very likely that most of the subject were between 100 and 150 lbs. This is what happens when you start your study by the desired conclusion.

Prior to the WHO’s misinformation; there were studies that showed that the breathing impairment from wearing a surgical mask is around 30%. This percentage can be much greater if the person is overweight. This data doesn’t take into account the fact of the CO2 the person who is wearing the mask is breathing over and over again, which lowers the oxygen intake even further.

When you do a study, not only do you need to identify the adverse effects, but you need to determine the exposure to these conditions. If a person works a 40 hrs week and he commutes by public transport we can say that this person will wear a mask on average for 45 hrs per week. This doesn’t take into account all the other public places the person needs to wear a mask, such as the groceries or restaurants. So let’s assume the average North American is forced to wear a mask for 50 hrs per week. How do we evaluate the health hazards of a 30% oxygen impairment for 50 hrs per week over a 4 to 6 months period or more?

Fortunately there is a very similar condition that has been studied thoroughly, sleep apnea. This condition is characterized by hypoxemia over a period of this that is caused by the obstruction of the airflow or that the interruption of the breathing. Sleep apnea leads to a oxygen saturation of the blood below 90%. The obstruction of the airflow that leads to apnea must be over 20%.

Hypoxemia, low levels of oxygen in the blood, leads to a bad control of the glucose in the metabolism. This goes back to the Krebs Cycle we have observed at the beginning of the presentation. Without the necessary oxygen, the metabolism cannot properly regenerate the NAD- and FADH needed for the oxidation cascade. By impairing the Krebs Cycle, the amount of energy generated by the metabolism is reduces and the blood glucose increases.

When the level of oxygen is low, the organism tries to compensate by increasing the heart rate. The reason the body does this is to increase the amount of blood going to the lungs in the hope of oxygenate the blood. However, in the lungs, gases exchanges are done by pressure gradients between the 2 environments. If the concentration of oxygen in the lungs is low, less oxygen will enter the blood; if the CO2 level in the lungs high, more CO2 will remain in the blood. An increase of CO2 in the blood produces carbonic acid in the blood which lowers the pH of the blood. This condition is called acidosis and it might result in the denaturation of proteins, it can affect the nervous system, cause a lost of energy, cause headaches, lead to hypoxemia (because the oxygen is less soluble in the blood at a low pH) and might result in kidney failure.

Having hypoxemia over a prolong period of time can lead to the following conditions: Irregular heartbeat, heart failure and/or heart attack due to the increased heart rate. Increase chances of diabetes, low energy, obesity and depression (which might have contributed to the high suicide rate during the pandemic) due to the bad control of the blood glucose.

If a person sleeps 8 hrs per day he will have, on average 56 hrs of sleep per week. An obstruction of 20% of the airflow during 56 hrs per week while the person is inactive causes all these health problems, but we are to believe that an obstruction of 30% of the airflow during 50 hrs per week while the person is active has no repercussion to the person’s health… This is ludicrous.

We both know if Trump forced everyone to use a mask in public at the beginning of the pandemic there would be hundreds of studies on the net that would support my conclusions. Masks would have become the #1 health hazards and the public would be worried about seeing so many people wearing masks.

I’m a scientist and the goals of science are to seek the truth through empirical observation and to improve the human condition. In this situation, empirical facts lead to the conclusion that the health agencies are imposing measures that have serious repercussions to the health of the general population and that they are doing this for nefarious reasons. The only means by which I can improve the human condition is by trying to sensibilize the population to the health risks caused by a prolong use of masks in the hope that the people will act accordingly to the danger they are exposed to.

And if by some chance you come across a person that is advocating that masks, according to the WHO, cause no health hazards, tear their narrative apart using the information I have provided to you and make sure everyone knows that this person doesn’t know shit so that he/she (probably a Karen) will not influence people to make the wrong choices.

Gato Villano