If you practiced a contact sport before the coronavirus, competitive or just among friends, thanks to the Italian research you will soon be able to return to the field in total safety.

At the Politecnico di Torino, in collaboration with CONI and other sports federations, a prototype of a mask different from the surgical one, able to allow contact sport, has been developed. In technical terms, a surgical mask can filter 95 litres of air per hour, while a sportsman generally consumes more than 200 litres per hour. Hence the need to go beyond the current adaptation that the mask industries have tried in vain to create, to be used in sports.

The whole point revolves around two parameters: breathability and filtering. It was necessary to find a device able to filter much more air without becoming too cumbersome for the face and therefore modify the motor activities; therefore the Italian researchers are working to find a more effective material, which also allows a stable wearability during the whole sport activity. After that, each contact sport has different characteristics, so the studies are oriented so as to allow a more and more performing performance depending on the discipline.

This is a little bit the same thing that is done for racquets: depending on whether they are for tennis, table tennis or badminton they will have different sizes, materials and capacities.

The first tests have had excellent results and this will allow the prototype to be available on the market starting next autumn, in open-source mode: the team has decided to put this research at the service of the community and therefore every company in the sector will be able to produce free of charge following the standards of the patent, at affordable prices. "It will also be a way to support the restart and the economy," emphasizes Professor Marco Barla, Rector for Sport's representative.

We will keep the readers of We the Italians updated in the future on how and when it will be available to find such masks. For now we can once again see that when the Italian genius applies to research, innovation and discovery at the service of all, Italy is able to give birth to the best that the world can generate.