Latino makes face masks that protect LADWP workers during their work with high voltage cables
Thousands of essential workers in Los Angeles were forced to wear face masks to protect themselves from potential coronavirus infections.
However, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Electricity (LADWP) realized that commercial mouth guards may be inadequate due to the work of their workers under intense heat and contact with high voltage.
Francisco Villalobos Casillas, an upholsterer who until recently oriented his work to fix or improve LADWP vehicle seats, told La Opinion that, without waiting for it, he became the designer of the only anti-COVID-19 masks in the world that are capable to withstand high voltage.
"When my supervisors asked me if I could make masks with that resistance, I replied that all I needed to do was change machinery," he said.
The LADWP sent him two machines that he had requested, one to sew with five needles, so that the masks, despite heavy use, would not fray, and the other to reinforce the seam of the entire mask.
The arrangement of the seats stopped being the routine; Resisting COVID-19, fire, and high-voltage current became the priority.
The tries
Villalobos and a team of workers produced a series of 10 masks and presented them for review by supervisors.
The supervisors chose a type of mask and the workers, in the workshop on Main Street, produced a series for them. However, when testing them in the field work, they discovered that the masks had to be modified.
"What happened is that many electrical workers and workers from other fields have to wear a protective helmet" and the masks needed to be adapted, Villalobos said.
With that observation, the team in the upholstery shop, now turned into a protection center, crafted other types of mouthguards and sent them back to supervisors, who chose a model to retest.
Since then the masks have met the requirements to allow essential workers to do their field work with face masks, as well as being resistant enough to withstand fire or high tension.
Villalobos acknowledged that, due to the need generated by the pandemic, he became a designer of a type of mask that until now does not exist in the commercial market.
He said he does not know how much each mask can cost because he and his team only receive the material to
produce them.
"The initial goal they have set for me is 3,000 masks," he said. "It's the LADWP fieldworker payroll, but they probably want me to make additional ones if they are needed."
The team at the upholstery shop has so far produced about 1,500 fire and electricity resistant mouth masks.
On a daily average, they make around 100 new ones, which are distributed to workers who have continued in work because they are considered essential.
However, Francisco believes that when his assigned LADWP fieldworker quota ends, he may be commissioned to make more masks to protect other essential workers who urgently need them.
Asked what he would like La Opinion readers to know about his original design work, the upholsterer by trade said he would like “to know that here we can design something that is needed and is not yet available in the market, because it inspires us want to help ”.
