A shocking new report revealed that face masks may raise the risk of stillbirth and testicular dysfunction. Once ubiquitous during the height of the Covid Pandemic, the precautionary face mask could lead to some nasty health problems. Aside from the risk of respiration infections and questions concerning their efficacy in reducing Covid transmission, a few studies have exposed the potential harm that chronic carbon dioxide poisoning could cause.
Some of the new revelations concerning prolonged mild carbon dioxide could lead to a higher chance of stillbirths, testicular dysfunction, and cognitive decline in children.
The research is alarming at a time where infertility is at a record high and young male testosterone levels are at a record low.
According to the research reported on by The Daily Mail, the gap between the mask and the user’s mouth can trap the harmful gas.
Although medical experts have questioned the conclusions of the research, pregnant women inhaling higher levels of carbon dioxide could cause issues to their unborn fetus.
The researchers also signaled that higher levels of CO2 could result in greater oxidative stress which could lead to testicular dysfunction in men.
Children could also suffer from cognitive impairment through mild carbon dioxide poisoning.
The Daily Mail reported:
“One study the German researchers looked at found that just 0.3 percent prolonged CO2 exposure to both pregnant rats and young mice led to brain damage, heightened anxiety and poorer memory. Another found that male mice exposed to 2.5 percent CO2 for four hours — equal to 0.5 percent for humans — resulted in the destruction of testicular cells and sperm. A third study found that three percent CO2 (equivalent of 0.8 percent for humans) in pregnant rats caused stillbirth and birth defects.”
Given the sharp rise in stillbirths during the height of the pandemic, the researchers stated:
“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.
In spite of the alarming findings, there could be other factors at play to explain the rise in stillbirths and dip in cognitive performance.
And although the study in raised CO2 levels was performed on rats — as the study was deemed unethical to be performed on humans — the exact toxic levels of CO2 on children are not known.
The Daily Mail also reported:
“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.
“The gas makes up around 0.04 percent of all inhaled air, for comparison, and the Department of Agriculture said safe levels should be below 0.5 percent for eight-hour exposure.”
Other health concerns relating to face masks were cognitive and psychological issues postulated in children, with adults and peers wearing face masks attenuating the child’s development in reading facial expressions.
Microplastics — with known health issues from endocrine disruption to gut dysbiosis — found in face masks were also believed to cause soft tissue damage to the lungs.
