On my recent travels, I only saw one person wearing a mask for travel.
Of course, the bulk of my trip was by car and the people with whom I traveled weren’t afraid of any germs that I might be sharing.
However, two legs of my trip were by plane and I did see one person wearing a mask for travel in the Houston airport. From the sneezing and coughing I heard on the plane from Houston to Ft. Lauderdale, everyone should have had on a mask. I am still waiting for that first tingle of the nose that tells you a cold is on the way.
Back when there was the H1N1 scare, the SARS scare, and the bird flu scare before that it was not uncommon to see people wearing a mask when they travel.
We are often asked if the U2 Sports mask is a good mask for travel. The answer is “yes” if you are concerned about pollens and large particles of pollution in your destination city/country. When my mother visited China, she said the residents referred to the heavy pollution as “the mist”. As in “The mist is heavy today”. How quaint and ever so much more polite than “Holy crap the pollution is so bad I can’t see today”. It isn’t going to protect you from small particles such as bacteria and viruses.
If your concern is either catching or spreading disease, then the best mask for travel is the N95 Alpha Mask. We still refer to it as the “Bird Flu” mask. Because it is designed for 0.1-micron particle efficiency it will protect you against those pesky pollens and pollution particles, but it will also protect you on the plane or train from airborne viruses and bacteria.
Because it is lightweight, it doesn’t get hot and because it is disposable, it is inexpensive.
The person I saw at the airport was wearing an N95 mask. I wanted to ask her if she bought it from The Allergy Store, but I also wanted to make it to the Customer Service counter ahead of all the other people who had just had their connecting flights ruined by Continental Airlines. So I didn’t ask her.
I also didn’t get to the Customer Service counter ahead of all the other people.
I also didn’t make it out of Houston that day.
The Allergy Store