Unmasking Asian Fashion: What's with the Face Masks?

What's the single most unexpected thing about living in South Korea?

Turning an air filter face mask into an everyday necessary accessory. Looking like a post-apocalyptic movie character or like Kitana (or Mileena or Jade or Frost...or maybe the Mortal Kombat world has an air pollution problem, too)...

So, what's up with the face mask, anyway?

Air pollution gets pretty bad here.

You've probably got a smorgasbord of questions now, and so did I! So, let's go through them:

What is air pollution, anyway?

Air pollution is a toxic mix of particles and gases that can cause mild to severe health issues for humans and animals. Perhaps you think of places like California or China, both with notorious cities that boast health alerts and smoggy city scenes. But air pollution is much more widespread, within the States and internationally, as well. In fact, WHO reports that air pollution kills about seven million people every year.

How does South Korean air get polluted?

Almost half of it comes from countries to the west. Natural winds and sands blow over toxins from China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan, and those fine toxins stick to the fine sands as they make their way here. But that leaves more than half of the air pollution indeed coming from South Korea itself, from the coal power plants and byproducts of vehicle traffic.

Mind you, regardless of geographical location, we are still all neighbors on one planet. Asian air pollution has reached the United States, which certainly has its own air issues to tackle.

Does South Korea have its own air regulations?

Korea does have air pollution regulations and is currently enacting policies to lessen the pollution this season. Whereas the air isn't the best ever in the winter, in the spring, the Yellow Dust phenomenon will happen. This occurs when the warmer season melts more ice covering more sands in the west, causing more sand and air toxins to sweep over this way.

So, how do you protect yourself when the air is bad?

With the cool-yet-dystopian air masks that prompted all these questions in the first place!

There are different types of masks. I look for anything marked with an N (ex: N95) or K (ex: K94) grade. Those have been scientifically tested to filter out that percentage of air (like, 95% or 94%, respectively). There are different grades, but I usually only see them go down to 84 or so, and as high as 99. The disposable masks like the one I'm wearing in the photo above are pretty cheap and can be found all over. (Though, there are definitely some masks sold that only look like air pollution masks, but they're basically just surgical masks and only serve the purpose of stopping the spread of germs when you're sick.) I get my air pollution masks from 7-Eleven for about $1 or $2. They work well for a certain number of hours. I'll probably buy myself a reusable one online soon that should keep for about six months (about $30). They come in different colors and patterns, in case you want to be fashionable about it!

Some days, the air is actually fine! Every day, I check the Air Quality Index (AQI) before I go out to see if a mask is truly necessary. There's an app for that! Here's what it looks like:

What's the worst that can happen if you don't wear a mask?

Well, the day I went around happy-go-lucky without a mask, I didn't think anything of it. I remember gazing at the hazy city skyline and one little intrusive thought: "Hey, it looks hazy over there and not over here, but I'm probably still breathing in all that smog I see. Huh." My throat hurt a little bit while I took my long walk outdoors. That night, my throat felt even scratchier and I had a little annoying cough for the rest of the night.

Let's say you were to hang out outdoors without a mask for a longer period of time. Here are some fun (not-so-fun) effects of air pollution exposure! Ooh, another fun (not-so-fun) fact is that you can break these down into short-term and long-term effects!

- Pneumonia (sounds like a flying dinosaur, but not as cool)

- Bronchitis ('cause who doesn't love hacking up a lung)

- Headaches, dizziness, nausea (WebMD's favorite things to turn into cancer)

- Lung cancer (oh, wait, it might actually be cancer!)

- Heart disease (from loving breathing too much)

- Asthma and other respiratory issues (like emphysema! Let me emphasize that emphysema is not as phun as its spelling)

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I taught a lesson to one of my elementary-school-aged classes during which I asked students to compare and contrast Seoul to various countries around the world. I held up a photo of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

"New York!" my kids yelled.

"Yes! And how do you think it's better to live in New York?" "Clean air!" yelled one of my students. "You can go outside anytime!"

You never know what you're taking for granted.

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Despite wearing my K94 air mask all day yesterday, I still had a scratchy throat last night and one of those annoying little coughs. A disposable mask only stays good for so long, anyhow. And no mask will ever be able to block out every single little micro-particle from every single inhale.

No worries, I thought. I'll just go get myself a new disposable mask today.

So, I strode over to 7-Eleven, which usually has not just individual K-grade face masks for sale, but entire boxes of disposable face mask packs.

But they were sold out today. In fact, stores have been sold out of the good face masks and hand sanitizer for the past couple weeks. The recent coronavirus has caused quite a frenzy. It's often normal to see Koreans walking around with masks, but there's been an exponential increase in masks lately, even indoors. I suspect many people have stayed home to avoid sickness recently. Schools have closed. Teachers who traveled abroad (especially to China) in the past weeks have been sent home for an indefinite period of time. (This happened to a native English teacher at my school who traveled to Hong Kong.) Many people have recently traveled abroad for Seollal/Lunar New Year, which is one of the only times during the year that we're off for a holiday. (And of course, it's the Chinese New Year, the exciting yet inopportune time for a China-based illness to break out. Everyone exiting exacerbates excitement!) Racism against the Chinese has become a little more evident recently, as well.

I never know what tomorrow will hold, but the main constants lately have been change and learning. Arguably, you could say those two words mean the same thing. Curiosity leads us to further education about our world, so different from one side to the other (like night and day, you could say -- ha!). But the more differences I find between "here" and "there," the more similarities I see, too.

Similarities I've Noticed So Far:

- People are scared of the coronavirus, regardless of where they call home.

- We are polluting the world to some capacity, regardless of where we call home.

- Wholesome/sappy alert: Regardless of specific spatial location, we are all inhabitants of the same home.

- Kids are kids and will be kids.

- West or east, people think face masks are super cool.

- West or east, people who have to wear face masks for long periods of time become painfully aware of the space behind their ears.

- West or east, face masks get hot and moist when worn for prolonged periods of time. (Yay for whatever emotion that inspires within you!)