Product Features

Contains Two washable Masks and a pack of 7 filters

Helix.iso™ Masks

  The Helix.iso™ mask is a system with a reusable mask body and disposable, eco-friendly filter element, designed to provide an effective filter for COVID19.  At a walking pace, protection could reach N95 levels but this is not yet tested.

HELIX™ is a scientifically developed and proven respiratory filter system developed in New Zealand to protect respiratory health. It has even been chosen by NASA for critical life support in the next manned exploration to the moon and beyond. The HELIX.iso™ formula has been developed for COVID 19 to allow a system of replaceable elements to be used in a washable mask accessible by the public. A key feature of Helix™ technology is its extremely low breathing resistance, which makes it easy to wear.

Users fit and replace the filters as often as possible. Contaminated filter elements must be disposed of safely and should not be re-used, and the mask body should be washed regularly. COVID is a terrible bug that you cannot see.  It will never clog a filter. This is a numbers game. One should carefully replace the elements as frequently as practical and as often as one can afford to.

When fitted correctly, the mask with HELIX.iso™ filter provides greater than 80% protection from 0.3micron particles and light breathing duty.

This is not an N95 mask. N95 refers to a safety standard for industrial use. These are also becoming available, but are typically more expensive, uncomfortable for prolonged use and unsuitable for people with breathing difficulties, under exertion, or for children (N95 is an INDUSTRIAL standard for adults in the workplace).

The HELIX.iso™ is designed to provide a basic level of protection in the following ways:

• To have an efficient mask that fits around the face and has a good seal.
• To provide a filter that is very easy to breathe through – essential for weak, sick, or very small people.
• To have a filter which will capture >80% of health-threatening particles at normal resting breathing rates with one layer.
• To provide a replaceable filter element which can be fitted by anyone, without damaging the element, without throwing away the whole mask.
• To provide an economical solution that sewing companies, community groups or individuals with a sewing machine can make themselves. Note: we sourced a polypropylene fabric for the mask. It is quick-drying and breathable, essentials in obtaining the best function in this system.

Where the Helix.iso™ Mask Fits In

1. Surgical masks (SP) The rectangular pleated blue or green ones that doctors use are very cheap and are designed to protect others from the exhaled breath of the wearer, and to protect the wearer from blood splatter etc. (NOT 0.3-micron particles or virus particles). These are not ideal for protection from exposure when out of your bubble, or working in the front line of Covid19.
2. The HELIX.iso™ Mask Uses a special filter called HELIX.iso™, which users can fit and replace as often as possible. The cost-effective, reusable, easy breathing mask body can be purchased from Earth Sea Sky or can be made from a supplied pattern but must be washed regularly. A contaminated element must be thrown away safely. When correctly deployed, the mask with a HELIX.iso™ filter provides a high level of protection.
3. N95 or P2 or FFP2 masks These are workplace standards from the US, AU/NZ, and EU respectively. They are designed to protect the wearer from fine particles (0.3 microns) at high flow rates (around 80 - 85 litres/min). They are not designed to be worn for long periods and are designed to fit adults in the workplace. The standards are such that they generally have very high breathing resistance. The breathing resistance levels required by these standards are high, meaning to be effective they require a tight face fit, and therefore typically a high strap pressure to maintain the seal. This means they will capture dangerous particles even at high breathing rates in excess of 95%. An N95 mask will typically have a breathing resistance much higher (allowable up to 240Pa to comply) than a HELIX.iso™ element (10Pa), and depending on the use an N95 will, therefore, have a higher propensity to leak on inhaling and exhale, or have to have excessively high and therefore uncomfortable levels of strap pressure to prevent leakage.  Compliance is a factor linked to comfort, and therefore the more comfortable and easy breathing a mask is, the greater the statistical performance in protection (An N95 leaking at 10% of the time would be worse for you than a correctly made and worn .iso mask.)

https://www.lanaco.co.nz/index.cfm/technology/helix-filter-performance-demo-video/   © Lanaco and Earth Sea Sky April 2020