A surgical mask, also known as a procedure mask, is intended to be worn by health professionals during surgery and at other times to catch the bacteria shed in liquid droplets and aerosols from the wearer's mouth and nose.
Outside health care facilities, simple, inexpensive masks of similar appearance are commonly worn in heavily populated centers in East Asia to help prevent spreading the common cold. In Japan, it is common to wear a face mask whilst ill to avoid infecting others in public settings.
They are also worn by delinquents, from school renegades to bousouzoku and the yakuza.
The following tags are aliased to this tag: medical_mask (learn more).
This tag implicates mouth_mask (learn more).