The Upper Hand Mask is a CE certified Medical Mask, Type IIR, according to Euro Norm EN 14683 + AC: 2019, registered through BfArM (Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland).

Certificates, test reports and proofs for download can be found here.

All Upper Hand products are engineered for multiple uses.

For our face mask that means that you send less masks to waste in comparison to single use masks. The anti-microbial effect of the Upper Hand lasts up to 30 washes. We recommend you hand wash your mask every 7 days and carefully follow the wash instructions. 30 times 7 days result in a life-span of our mask of up to 210 days. 

This means that one Upper Hand mask is equivalent to up to 210 single use masks. And you send less waste to the planet.

Avoiding heavy metals is another important topic. Upper Hand products are treated with chemicals that disinfect without using any heavy metals in their chemical composition. Many other multi-use masks or anti-bacterial and anti-viral materials are treated with heavy-metal-including chemicals. Even if silver, copper, zinc sound “valuable” and harmless they can cause severe harm to humans and animals alike and are poisonous to the environment. If you want to know more about it, read this detailed analysis of the WHO. 

This is why we do not use heavy-metals based treatments in Upper Hand products. And we are actively researching how to reduce the environmental impact through using more biodegradeable materials.   

The inside and outside textiles of your Upper Hand Mask constantly disinfect themselves. If you still want to wash your mask to remove dust and stains follow these instructions: 

Rinse your mask under running water. You can also wash it in a bowl of water. Cold or lukewarm water is perfectly sufficient. If you want, you can also use hot water up to 90 degrees. This will not damage the materials of the mask. Please be careful not to scald yourself. 

If you can't remove all the dirt with water, you can rub some mild hand soap on the affected area. Then rinse the mask very well with water to remove all soap residues. 

Now you can dry the mask. You can hang it over the heater or use a hair dryer if you want to dry it quickly. Alternatively, you can dry it in a clean oven for 30-60 minutes at 60 degrees celsius. Please keep the mask away from flames or extreme heat.

Please note that the medical certification of the mask is only valid for single use due to regulatory constraints.

To keep the properties and the Nano Filter as long as possible, avoid the following:

Do not use detergents, fabric softeners or bleach. They can block and deactivate the active surface with their anionic surfactants.

Avoid washing machine and dryer. They could mechanically damage the material.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to email us at hello@upperhand.co

We use self-disinfecting materials in our products.

Our materials are treated in a way that they get billion of positively charged areas on their surface. You can imagine these areas as very small but powerful “positive magnets”. 

SARS-CoV-2 viruses have negative charged areas on their surfaces. And as a consequence they stick to our “positive” material when they come in contact.

The positive charges of our materials is actually so high that they break down their structures. They open them up so that their DNA leaks out and gets destroyed. They fall off and the positive magnets they were attracted to are free again to take on the next virus. 

This makes our materials self-disinfecting against Sars-CoV-2 and the effect durable and long-lasting over time. 

We have identified materials that can reduce the concentration of Sars-CoV-2 virus by more than 99% when they come into contact with the surface of the textile. In Upper Hand, we use exactly these materials so that the mask does not need to be washed to stay clean and fresh. If you want to learn more about the scientific results, please click here.

We have joined forces with the Institute for Animal Hygiene and Environmental Hygiene of the FU Berlin and the Institute for Textile Technology (ITA) of the RWTH Aachen in the project "ViruShield".

We are supported by the EIT Health Initiative of the European Union. Together, we have conducted tests in the high-security laboratory of the Institute of Animal Hygiene and Environmental Hygiene at Freie Universität Berlin to measure the efficacy of various materials against the SARS-CoV-2 virus according to ISO 18184 and other globally recognized test methods.

There is a problem with filters: the materials used in masks are often pretty hard to breathe through. They use multiple layers of filtration webs on top of each other to create small enough holes so that even tiny particles and tiny droplets (100 - 5.000 nanometer in diameter) cannot pass through, but air can. 

For our Nano Filter we use a material that is created in an electro-magnetic field. It has many more tiny air holes per square centimeter because it uses fibers which are 300% thinner than regular filter fibers. In porometric and airflow filtration analyses we have shown that the Nano Filter filters out >94% of micro particles whilst leaving up to 50% more air pass through in comparison to traditional filter materials. And that means: you can breathe in and out more easily. 

No. Upper Hand products are not a substitute for diligent personal hygiene as recommended by Health Authorities worldwide (e.g. wash hands frequently, avoid crowded and closed spaces). They cannot prevent infections when not wearing the mask properly and situations in which the virus enters the respiratory tract through other ways, like cross contamination through a person’s contaminated hand.

Upper Hand® Masks are tested and certified as Medical Face Masks Type IIR according to Euro Norm EN 14683:2019. You can view the test reports and certificates here. 

Upper Hand products are not suitable for professional use in hazardous environments. Please do not use Upper Hand masks for protection against harmful chemicals, gases, vapors, oil aerosols, oil-based particles, or in extremely high particle concentrations. 

Upper Hand products do not eliminate illness, disease or infection and are intended for general public use only. 

Upper Hand face masks help filter out micro-particles from the air around you, but they do not supply oxygen. 

Upper Hand masks have self-disinfecting materials. But this does not mean that you should share your mask with others, or use the mask of someone else. Please make sure to always use your own mask and make sure the masks fit well on your face. This helps to reduce the risk of getting infected by others and infecting others. 

If you have respiratory problems like asthma or emphysema, consult your a medical doctor before wearing face masks in general, and thus also our Upper Hand face mask. 

We do not recommend children below the age of 6 to wear face masks.

1. Unfold the mask

2. Do not use if the mask has been used by someone else before

3. Put on the mask to cover your mouth, nose and chin areas. Put the ear loops around your ears

4. Adjust the fit of the mask to your face by pulling the ear loops comfortably tight, and by tightly forming the inserted nose wire to the shape of your face

5. Check the mask-to-face seal by placing both hands completely over the mask and exhale sharply. If air leak around the nose, re-adjust the nose wire as described in step 4. 

We use chemical treatments that help the material to disinfect its surfaces over and over again. The treatment chemicals we use are approved by the the European Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR, Regulation (EU) 528/2012, CAS 41591-87-1).

They are bound to the materials which prevents their release when you breathe through, wear, or touch our products. 

We do not use any heavy metals in the chemical treatment formulations. Even if silver, copper, zinc sound “valuable” and harmless , they can cause severe harm to humans and animals alike and are poisonous to the environment. If you want to know more about it, read this detailed analysis of the WHO.