Don’t we inhale huge amounts of poison when breathing through the gas mask?
In: 3
There are generally a couple things in play
1. Filtering – this deals with big particles like dust and soot but can also be made to deal with things like bacterial contaminants
2. Adsorption or neutralization – You can’t filter out chemical hazards like chlorine gas so you need to either chemically neutralize it or get it to stick to something. Activated charcoal is often used for the second job since its been loosened up to have a huge surface area so it can hold onto a lot of the stickier stuff coming through so it is “adsorbed” onto the surface. Chemical neutralization requires a specific mask for a specific gas with the right reactants in the canister.
Mask filters are labeled for what they protect against. Almost all have some degree of filtering at the front and protect against particulates but a mask meant to protect against mercury likely won’t happen to protect against hydrogen sulfide because they need different stuff
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