Imagine this: You’re a college student assigned to design a product that could help humanity in a future apocalyptic scenario. You think hard about a world where even breathing could be risky. Then, within months, that reality happens and your “what if” school project becomes a potential lifesaver.
That’s what happened to Yael Mordechay, a junior at the department of industrial design at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. In her class on wearable technology, she designed an innovative protective air mask that could potentially safeguard many during the COVID-19 crisis.
When Mordechay’s professor asked her to create a solution for “a problem that’s going to be in the future,” she chose to address air pollution. “It’s a big problem in China and India, but there’s not a lot of awareness in Israel,” she told the Journal. “It’s not cool to wear masks.”
So, Mordechay went sought to create a user-friendly mask that would be cool to wear. Researching her options, Mordechay realized that bulky masks with big filters are more equipped to handle pathogens, but smaller masks were definitely more fashionable. So, working with two labs in Japan, Mordechay developed ways to detect air pollution and bacteria with a slimmer product.
Her next move was to eliminate the awkward strap to keep masks on tight. “I understood that the band behind the head is not comfortable for a lot of people,” she said. “So I found a special kind of glue that is two-sided. One side you stick on the surface and the other side is special for the skin. You can take it off without it peeling [off] your hair and put it on again.”
With this technology, her mask became strapless, following the trendy minimalism of Apple’s cordless headphones, but Mordechay also wanted something that was aesthetically pleasing. While it was necessary to make the mask sterile, “It was also important to me that it was colorful, not white or connected to doctors,” she explained. She decided to decorate it with “something that you’re not embarrassed to put on in the street.”The current prototype is color-blocked with bright teal and a suede-style tan. It does not look like a medical mask, but a graphic accessory.
To ensure the mask was as safe as possible, Mordechay knew that she had to make it durable for an extended period of time. “You can’t wear a mask for more than 3 days,” she said, noting that when you take it off it becomes contaminated. “I needed to make a case that would make it easy to keep it clean and to take it out.”
So she developed a special bag with its own disinfecting system. The case uses UV light technology to destroy particles and bacteria, leaving the mask sterilized and safe to re-use.
Two weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration acknowledged that “the need by healthcare providers and personnel for personal protective equipment (PPE) such as surgical masks and surgical and isolation gowns, may outpace the supply during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.”
Last week, photos of nurses at the Manhattan hospital Mount Sinai West using Hefty black trash bags as makeshift protective garb went viral. The caption read: “NO MORE GOWNS IN THE WHOLE HOSPITAL.”
Shortly thereafter a nursing manager died of the virus. Staffers believe that her illness and death were caused by the lack of basic supplies. “I’m only a student,” Mordechay said, but she hopes, with the help of her professor, she can get the masks out into the world.
