Half of 10 brands of facemasks from different manufacturers tested by the Health & Safety Executive had faults or failed. All of them carried a CE mark.

The results are published in a report (which you can download here). HSE tested 10 disposable Filtering Facepieces (FFPs) – specifically FFP3 models that are supposed to offer better protection against dust, particles and aerosols than FFP1 or FFP2 models. The HSE aim was to determine whether each model met health & safety performance requirements. Half didn't.

Two models had an isolated fault on a single sample – one had a folded over exhalation valve flap that rendered the mask ineffective. Three models had multiple faults, two of them had visible splits in the filtering material.

Alan Gilbert, General Manager of BSRIA Instrument Solutions (the test, instruments, research and consultancy owned by the Building Services Research & Information Association), said: "FFP3 facemasks are used extensively throughout the UK in applications such as the protection of workers from silicon dust... and with only five out of 10 mask types passing the market surveillance testing conducted by HSE, this must we very worrying for industry in general."

There are 10,000 or so new cases of lung and workplace respiratory diseases reported each year. Prevention through the correct selection and use of respiratory protective equipment (RPE) is important.

Some of the problems identified by HSE should be picked up by an adequately trained operator during pre-use checks. Others, such as leakage through filtering materials, would be more difficult to detect.