Apple has made an FDA-approved transparent facemask for employees

Apple has developed facemasks for its employees and one of them is transparent and FDA approved.

A worker sanitises an Apple store inside a shopping mall reopened after the government eased a nationwide lockdown imposed as a preventive measure against the Covid-19 coronavirus, in Chennai on September 1, 2020.  (AFP)

When it comes to Apple and its employees, the company likes taking matters in their own hands. Apple has made facemasks for employees in-house and is going to be shipping them out to both corporate and retail employees soon.

According to the Bloomberg report, Apple has made two masks - the Apple Face Mask and the ClearMask. The former was created in-house by and the ClaerMask was sourced elsewhere. This is not Apple's first foray into face masks though, the company has made face shields for medical workers earlier.

Apple's Face Mask has been developed by the Engineering and Industrial Design teams. These are the same guys that work on devices like the iPhone and the iPad. The Apple Face Mask is made up of three layers of filters and can be washed and reused up to five times.

The mask looks unique with large coverings on the top and the bottom for the user's nose and chin and has adjustable strings for a better fit.

Apple confirmed this news and said that they have conducted careful research and testing to find the right materials that can filter the air properly while “not disrupting the supply of medical personal protective equipment”.

Apple is going to start shipping these masks off to employees over the next two weeks.

The other ClearMark is the first FDA-approved transparent surgical mask and it shows the full face of the user. This will help those who are hearing impaired understand what the user is saying to them.

For this, Apple has worked with Washington-based Gallaudet University that specialises in educating deaf and hearing-impaired students to figure out which clear mask to use. Apple has also tested these masks on employees in three Apple stores. Apple is also looking into making its own transparent masks in house.

So far, Apple has been providing its employees with standard cloth masks and surgical masks to customers visiting the retail stores.

(With agency inputs)