Healthy masks for traffic cops soon

MUMBAI: Most cops complain that anti-pollution masks given to them cause skin infections

Most traffic cops are reluctant to wear the new anti-pollution masks provided to them.

Reason: They suspect they are causing skin rash and infections.

The traffic cop, who stands manning the traffic for the better part of the day, is exposed to pollution hazards with vehicles swishing past and leaving behind toxic emissions.

They were provided anti-pollution masks as a preventive measure, but they soon found the devices were a health hazard in another way.

Many complained of skin-related infections, apparently due to the allergies caused by the material used for the masks. The cops now want the manufacturers to provide skin friendly designs.

“We have three different agencies that will provide the design and material to be used in manufacturing new masks. After field tests, we will approve the most friendly mask design and place orders for the same,” Vijay Kamble, joint commissioner, traffic branch, said.

“For one reason or the other, the cops do not feel comfortable with the existing masks and complain of uneasiness and infection,” Kamble added.

The traffic cops’ problems with the masks are not new. Earlier, every traffic police office used to have a limited number of masks to be used by the cops in rotation.

The constables refused to wear the same saying that it was unhygienic to wear masks used by someone else.

Before the Ganesh festival began, some voluntary organisation donated 6,000 masks to the traffic branch.

The department issued the new masks to over 1,600 men and officers to ward off high levels of pollution. But
the cops on field were not comfortable with them.

The cops also feel that once they wear the mask, they can not blow the whistle to regulate traffic.

“By the time we remove the mask and blow the whistle, the offenders are out of reach. The department must provide masks that will also facilitate blowing the whistle,” said a traffic constable.

“We are looking into this aspect too,” Kamble told DNA on Thursday evening.