New Study Exposes Further Health Risks of Mask-Wearing to Children and Pregnant Women

A study published March 3rd in the journal Heliyon discusses detrimental health risks from mask-wearing to children, adolescents, and pregnant women.

German researchers who conducted the study concluded that wearing a mask for long periods can trap carbon dioxide, which is then inhaled.

As a result, the researchers found that masks may increase the risk of stillbirths, testicular dysfunction, and cognitive decline in children.

“Face masks may raise the risk of stillbirths, testicular dysfunction and cognitive decline in children, ‘explosive’ new research suggests.”https://t.co/RpGv9crnZU

— Michael P Senger (@michaelpsenger) April 24, 2023

More proof masks were wrong:

Face masks trap CO2; may raise risk of stillbirths, testicular dysfunction and cognitive decline due to build-up of carbon dioxide, study warns.

Masks provide breathing resistance and create a dead space that traps CO2, leading to more inhaled and… pic.twitter.com/MMJsQ0BtiI

— New World Odor™ (@hugh_mankind) April 24, 2023

Daily Mail first reported on the study:

They say the build-up of CO2 in pregnant women’s bodies could cause complications for the unborn fetus. They point out that CO2 also contributes to oxidative stress, which can affect cognition and cause testicular issues in men.

But independent doctors have questioned the conclusions of the study — which never directly looked at health complications and mask use, describing the link as ‘unlikely’.

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Alluding to the surge in stillbirths during the pandemic, the German researchers said: ‘Circumstantial evidence exists that popular mask use may be related to current observations of a significant rise of 28 percent to 33 percent in stillbirths worldwide.’

‘[And] reduced verbal, motor, and overall cognitive performance of two full standard deviations in scores in children born during the pandemic,’ the researchers wrote in the paper, published in the journal Heliyon.

But the study could not conclusively prove that the masks were directly responsible for any of these complications.

Dr Stuart Fischer, an emergency care physician in New York, questioned whether there was a ‘toxic buildup’ of CO2.

He said: ‘I wouldn’t say this happens, because the body adjusts the pH, the acid/base balance very quickly. Respiratory acidosis due to facemasks is unlikely although short-term side effects might affect people with chronic lung disease.’

The German research team gathered data from 43 previously published studies on exposure to CO2, mask-wearing and pregnancy.

They found that after wearing a mask for more than five minutes, CO2 levels in the inhaled air rose to between 1.4 percent and 3.2 percent.

One mask study conducted in Germany, researchers measured the CO2 concentration of air behind surgical masks worn by 15 healthy men. Within 30 minutes, the CO2 concentration rose to roughly 2.8-3.2 percent.

In another study in Italy, scientists measured the air under surgical masks worn in a lab and found a concentration between 0.22 and 0.29 percent within five minutes.

Masks provide breathing resistance and create a dead space that traps CO2, leading to more inhaled and re-breathed CO2, the reviewers said.

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The researchers stated for their results & discussion:

Results: Fresh air has around 0.04% CO2, while wearing masks more than 5 min bears a possible chronic exposure to carbon dioxide of 1.41% to 3.2% of the inhaled air. Although the buildup is usually within the short-term exposure limits, long-term exceedances and consequences must be considered due to experimental data. US Navy toxicity experts set the exposure limits for submarines carrying a female crew to 0.8% CO2 based on animal studies which indicated an increased risk for stillbirths. Additionally, mammals who were chronically exposed to 0.3% CO2 the experimental data demonstrate a teratogenicity with irreversible neuron damage in the offspring, reduced spatial learning caused by brainstem neuron apoptosis and reduced circulating levels of the insulin-like growth factor-1. With significant impact on three readout parameters (morphological, functional, marker) this chronic 0.3% CO2 exposure has to be defined as being toxic. Additional data exists on the exposure of chronic 0.3% CO2 in adolescent mammals causing neuron destruction, which includes less activity, increased anxiety and impaired learning and memory. There is also data indicating testicular toxicity in adolescents at CO2 inhalation concentrations above 0.5%.

Discussion: There is a possible negative impact risk by imposing extended mask mandates especially for vulnerable subgroups. Circumstantial evidence exists that extended mask use may be related to current observations of stillbirths and to reduced verbal motor and overall cognitive performance in children born during the pandemic. A need exists to reconsider mask mandates.

The researchers further concluded:

A significant rise in carbon dioxide occurring while wearing a mask is scientifically proven in many studies, especially for N95- masks (Table 2) due to their higher deadspace and breathing resistance [48].

Fresh air has around 0.04% CO2 while masks bear a possible chronic exposure to low level carbon dioxide of 1.41 3.2% CO2 of the inhaled air in reliable human experiments (Table 1) [64,65,69,71,73].

Animal experimental data shows deleterious proven effects of elevated CO2 of inhaled air in the long term with threshold values of above 0.3%, 0.5% and 0.8% (Neuron destruction, impaired memory and learning, increased anxiety, destruction of cells in testes, stillbirth, and birth defects) [58,104,106–108,113,114]. The risk for children’s mental development starts at levels of above 0.3% [108,113], to adolescent male sexual development at levels of above 0.5% [114], as well as to unborn life at levels of above 0.8% [58, 106,107] resulting in reduced cognitive performance, reduced fertility and stillbirths (Table 3).

There is circumstantial evidence that popular mask use may be related to current observations of a significant rise of 28% to 33% in stillbirths worldwide and a reduced verbal, motor, and overall cognitive performance of two full standard deviations in scores in children born during the pandemic [62,63,124–126,141].

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According to the data found, wearing face masks also has the potential to exceed acute (3% CO2 for 15 min) and chronic (0.5% CO2 for 8 h) NIOSH limits for CO2 respiration. Even if these are not exceeded, assuming that time is a toxicological variable equivalent to dose (Haber’s rule of inhalation toxicology, also known as cn × t m = K) [117–119] long term everyday mask use should be further examined, as chronic (repeated) exposure to smaller daily doses (even subliminally) may not differ significantly in its effect on the organism from exposure to acute/occasional higher (threshold) doses [117,118]. Instead of only worrying about the potential risks of a future harmful long-term CO2 increase in the atmosphere with impact on human health [112,171,172], the focus of research should also be on the current mask-related CO2 increase in breathing air (Table 1) with its numerous effects. Face mask experiments with appropriately long (and variable) exposure times and measurements of e.g., electrolyte, acid-base and renal excretion haemostasis are needed to investigate toxicological risks of carbon dioxide rebreathing for the most vulnerable groups.

Read the full study at cell.com.