The impact of air pollution on public health, especially high-risk populations such as children and the elderly, is still the world’s attention in both developed and developing countries. Air pollution is still a substantial problem. For this reason, several countries have begun efforts to reduce emissions from certain sources; for example, lead has been removed from the level of gasoline and sulfur in controlled fuels.
Even though this action has been taken, the ambient air pollution is still high. As in tropical countries, air pollution is one of them triggered by peat fires. To reduce exposure to toxic gases in the air, the community uses several types of respiratory protection such as cotton cloth, surgical masks, and gas masks, based on the purpose of making surgical masks in the area to protect the wearer.
While the respirator mask is designed to protect the wearer from the environment, surgical masks are designed to filter viruses and bacteria and dust. All types of respiratory protection have not been able to filter and absorb exposure to toxic gases such as COx, NOx, and SOx.
To overcome this, it is necessary to change the respiratory protection which has more ability, which is able to filter bacteria, dust, and gas at once. The material is made from facial ingredients, namely, spunbond and meltblown by combining activated carbon. Activated carbon has a relatively large micropore and mesopore, so it has a large surface area. It expected to absorb toxic gases such as COx, NOx, and SOx.