"FFP2 etc. PPE masks are designed and intend to protect the wearer.

Face coverings aren't intended to protect the wearer. Face coverings protect everyone else. Face coverings are supposed to limit the degree to which an infected wearer passes it on to everyone else.

It's no great surprise that something intended to do one job isn't very effective at the opposite."

Actually, unless fitted with a release valve, they filter both inhaled and exhaled breath.

"surgical" facemasks failed both tests. Home made face coverings fail both also.

Given that the majority of "face coverings" fit dismally, and the amount of people going-around wearing them with the nose exposed, or around their chins with both nose and mouth exposed, or not at all, I wear a [properly fitted] FFP2.

I also have a selection of full face-masks with replaceable filters, to P3 standard. The blood-test facility is not happy at me wearing those, but since there are a dozen people in an unventilated room, sitting one metre apart, they can stay unhappy.

You wear what you like.

Originally Posted by: Swygart25604

What I want to know is why am I getting harrangued for a blatant failure of public policy by one of its employees???

Was it the HSE inspector or someone else?

Originally Posted by: biker1

It is curious isn't it, that so many people are refusing to wear something that protects other people, rather than themselves?

Not really - society has long pandered to the whims and rights of the individual. Just because we now have a pandemic it will take many years of throwing people off planes, barring customers from technology shops and punching other bus users to change society.

What point is a face covering when the "celebrity" entitled jet world wide on a frequent basis and then head out without following the rules (anyone keeping count of the party failings against regulation - think the recent Blair & Corbyn examples have Labour in the lead even with the Cummings trip). One even has a range of clothing expressing their disdain for the rest of us "Sorry I dont que Hun" emblazoned across the front.

Too true, Roundtuit. Sad isn't it, that just for a while during the lockdown we got a glimpse of how better society could be? Now that restrictions have been lifted (albeit briefly from the way things are going), it's back to the usual attitudes. I blame Maggie Thatcher for starting the 'me, me' mindset (but then I blame her for most things wrong with Britain these days).

Agree with the poor example being shown with so many famous people, POTUS being the main one. Mass rallies, with no social distancing and not many masks in sight. I don't know how he sleeps at night. 

Originally Posted by: biker1

POTUS being the main one. 

Have you seen he's apparently been told about a study that found that 85% of people with covid reported that they had sometimes worn a face covering, and interpreted that as being that 85% of people that wear a face covering will get covid?

Originally Posted by: biker1

It is curious isn't it, that so many people are refusing to wear something that protects other people, rather than themselves? Says a lot about their attitude to personal responsibility and their respect for other people. I see that Liam and Noel Gallagher are refusing to wear masks. What does that tell us about them that we didn't already know? *rseholes with attitude.

If you'd seen the results of tests on both "surgical" facemasks and "face coverings", you would not be that interested in putting your faith in them!

An FFP2 mask protects from inhaling virus and also exhaling, to a greater extent than the two previous examples. They don't wear "surgical" facemasks in areas of high likelihood of infection in hospitals (although the govt spend £30 million buying a load for that purpose!)

I'm 70, my faith in humanity is at a very low ebb. My faith in politicians does not exist; at all.

Re post #681, news from across the Pond, it looks like OSHA is being a little tougher than the HSE "Factory Inspector(s)".

OSHA inspectors have removed 634,515 workers from COVID-19 hazards during the coronavirus pandemic.

Also announced slightly over $1.2m in fines for COVID violations. OSHA fines tend to be quite small and I didn't check how many there were to total this figure.

Originally Posted by: N Hancock

What i dont understand is why there has been no tv advert campaign on their correct use.

Instructions for care and use are the remit of a market supplier.

When HMG let the craft folk loose and the myriad to purchase from internet auction sites any concept of a standard let alone including instructions went out the window.

Despite the link being via "The Wail" YouGov in a poll confirms what you are saying