SARS Scare Has Some Mask Makers Working Nonstop

Nothing -- not the eruption of Mount St. Helens, the anthrax threats or the Sept. 11 attacks -- has spiked demand in protective respiratory masks the way the SARS scare has.

3M Co. plants in Valley, Neb., and in Aberdeen, S.D., are cranking out masks around the clock, and nonstop production was being considered at the White Knight Engineered Products plant in Childersburg, Ala. Distributors to hospitals, equipment companies and retail stores nationwide say they can’t keep the masks on the shelves.

“We can’t get them,” said Rebecca Speights, a spokeswoman for Medical Supplies Depot in Mobile, Ala., which ran out of masks a week ago. “The manufacturers can’t make them fast enough.”

Demand has risen to an all-time high since March 15, when the World Health Organization recommended masks to help stop the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

The 3M plant in Valley has shifted some of its 386 workers from making insulation and respirators to making the N-95 mask, the model recommended by WHO. Production is up 50%, but company policy prevents plant manager David Clauss from discussing exact numbers.

“Everyone here has rallied to squeeze out every mask we can as fast as we can,” Clauss said.

Resembling a surgical mask, the N-95 includes a filter that 3M says keeps out 95% of particles that are 0.3 microns across or larger. Other types of masks keep a higher percentage of particles at bay, but they are less common.

U.S. health officials also are calling upon hospital workers to wear disposable N-95 masks when they treat patients who may have SARS.

White Knight does not make the N-95 mask but still has seen a 10% increase in demand for its model, according to Bill Wolfe, a vice president.

“People are wearing anything they can find,” he said.

In Alabama, Speights said many of the requests for masks come from people with relatives in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia, as well as from Canada, where there have been 13 deaths.

In Hong Kong, officials said Sunday that 40 people have died of SARS since the epidemic began in the city in March. At least 1,150 have been infected.

Worldwide, the virus has killed at least 130 people and infected nearly 3,200. No deaths have been reported in the U.S.

Regin HVAC Products Inc. of Shelton, Conn., is getting requests for as many as a 1 million masks a day but can get only 10,000 masks a week from its manufacturer, company spokesman John DeWitt said.

Many of the requests are from safety equipment distributors, according to DeWitt, but some come from individuals in the U.S., Canada and Asia.

“People just want something to cover their faces,” he said.