The form matters. The plastic in masks is not inhalable, and in all likelihood wearing a mask reduces inhaled plastics like it reduces inhaling of any other solid.

The article specified that all masks tested other than KN95 masks produced more microplastics than they filtered out (it didn't mention if they tested surgical masks).

This is not a bad result, since if you want to filter out viruses to protect the wearer (vs minimize general transmission), the N95/KN95 masks are the only ones worth wearing.

Quality matters, all items in a category are not the same.

Oh, agreed, there. KN-95 masks are the only types I’ve been using for over a year, so I just kind of assumed that. Many cloth masks do very little so I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually make it worse.

Micro plastics mostly come from synthetic fibers, like the fabric in masks.

More like from woven fabrics or non-woven felts, which shed fibers.

What fabrics aren’t woven? Isn’t that the definition of fabric - “a woven material”?

Maybe we should hav3 never made clothing out of plastic, entire fast fashion insutry needs to burn in hell