Japanese Medical Masks?!?

Question:

I was watching a documentary about japan, and a lot of people were walking around with white medical masks on their face, like the ones dentists use. i'm just wondering why a lot of people in japan were doing that.

Answer:

Japanese are very health conscious people, there are some reasons why Japanese people are statistically have the longest lifespans.

People in Japan wear those masks for many reasons and has NOTHING to do with the earthquake/radiation as the other post mentioned.

Many people in Japan suffer from bad allergies / hay fever, during the spring it would not be uncommon to see more people wearing masks. In addition, people wear masks to stop the spread of germs. People who are often sick will wear masks around.

Simple masks protect wearers from being splashed in the mouth with body fluids. They also remind wearers not to touch their mouth or nose, which could otherwise transfer viruses and bacteria after having touched a contaminated surface (fomite). This is where the masks are effective. How many times do you see a kid wipe their nose with their hands? They can also reduce the spread of infectious droplets (carrying bacteria or viruses) that are created when the wearer coughs or sneezes.

It's not that viruses can go strait through cloth, the main purpose is to prevent OTHERs from getting sick with your germs or to minimize the amounts coming out vs having no mask at all.. Nothing is 100% effective and you can still get sick from catch other people's germs because having a mask is not fully sealed.