THE BIOSCARF -- especially now

The Bioscarf: A big scarf with a built-in N95 filter

PRODUCT REVIEW

By Christopher Nyerges

[Nyerges is the author of “How to Survive Anywhere,” “Foraging California,” “Extreme Simplicity,” and other books. He has been leading survival classes since 1974.  More information at www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com]

BIOSCARF SPECS

Weight:  19.4 oz

Width:  84 inches

Length: 9 inches

Material:  100% polyester that is made from recycled PET water bottles and recycled PVC

Source:  https://www.g95.com/?rfsn=3861014.66a45d

I recently had the opportunity to test something called the “bioscarf.”  Yes, it’s a scarf, and everyone knows I like scarfs.  I’ve worn them all my life.  I used to love alpaca wool scarves, and find their comfort impeccable.  But then I was given a Polartech scarf, which is a polyester product that strives to duplicate wool without any itching or scratching.  I have come to prefer my Polartech scarves, which are also easy to clean and dry. 

I like long scarves too, but not the very long scarves that really get in the way.  I cannot get the story of the famous dancer Isadora Duncan out of my mind, who loved very very long silk scarves, and she enjoyed wearing them in her convertible.  She was 50 years old at the time, she was driving one day in September, 1927 in Nice, France, and her enormously-long scarf got caught in the rear hubcabs of her car!  It was a ghastly accident and she was strangled to death.  When you read about Duncan, you’d think her great legacy is that she had a famous dancing career, but the first think you read about is that she was strangled to death by her scarf.   Well, I don’t drive a convertible and I cannot imagine wearing a scarf that must have been 10 or 12 feet long, or longer!

Anyway, the bioscarf that I had the opportunity to use and test actually measures in at seven feet long, and 9 inches wide. That’s big, but not too big to get caught in your car’s or motorcycle’s wheels.  Bicyclists should be careful though.

I like its size.  It’s long, but not quite too long.  You have enough scarf to know you’re wearing a scarf and not forget it.  It comes in white, olive, black, and camo, and since I had the choice of color, I couldn’t resist the camo.  But its main selling point is not the size – it’s what’s hidden inside the fabric.

Bioscarf is actually a stylish air mask that keeps your neck and head cozy while filtering out unwanted air contaminants, germs, second hand smoke, pollen and other allergens. This can protect you from colds, flus, pneumonia, tuberculosis and allergens.  Bioscarf is the first scarf with an N95 air filter layer built right into the inner layer  of the scarf.

When tested by Nelson Labs against normal masks and respirators,  the bioscarf outperformed some of the most popular masks available today with a 99.75% average filtration efficiency. In addition to doing its job effectively,  the bioscarf is made from sustainable materials. Post-consumer recycled PET water bottles go into the fabric, while the signature labels are made from recycled PVC. It is also built to be long lasting and reusable, meaning less disposable air filters in the landfill.   And this filter is reusable – just wash the scarf by hand from time to time after use.

So, if you’re in a situation where you might otherwise put on a face mask, you can just wrap the scarf over your mouth and nose, and breathe through it.  Maybe you’re an allergy sufferer, visiting somewhere with poor air quality, on you’re on a bus or plane where everyone is sneezing and coughing.   Maybe you’re on a campout and the smoke from the campfire is excessive.  Bioscarf will give you some protection.

I like the multi-use aspect of the bioscarf, and when I’m wearing mine, it gives me the feeling of being protected, as if I’m living in a Mad Max, Book of Eli, or Bladerunner, world.  Of course,  that’s a crazy idea, since everyone in those futuristic dystopian societies would probably be wearing rags.  Still, the bioscarf is one of those multi-purpose garments that you’ll be glad  you purchased. It’s functional, and provides a layer of protection that other scarves just don’t provide. 

They run about $45, and are available at eartheasy.com, or Amazon.

COMFORT

I’ve had the opportunity to wear this scarf in cold weather, and found it to be a bit warmer than a comparable scarf.  This is probably because it’s not just a single layer of fabric, but actually 3 layers.  The scarf is not thick however, and it has the comfortable feel of a “normal” scarf.   The length is a bit longer than most scarves, and so you have just a bit more fabric that you can wrap around your neck, or your face.

Washing Instructions: Hand wash only

“Hiding Out in a Small Town”

During the days leading up to Y2K, when irrational panic overtook otherwise calm people, I received a phone call from a man who spoke to me in a choppy, breathy tone. 


“Christopher, can you help me?” he asked. “I need someone to help me survive Y2K.”  I didn’t know the man and had never met him.  It was the first time we’d ever talked.


The man told me that he was afraid of the impending doom, civil unrest, and the loss of everything he’s worked for. He wanted to know if I could help him dig a hole in the desert.


“Excuse me?” I asked, waiting for the punchline.


“Why would you dig a hole in the desert?”

“I’d live there,” he told me, matter of factly. The man sincerely believed that digging a hole in the desert and hiding out in some remote desert locale would be his passport to survival.


I knew that I would not be digging a hole with him in the desert, and I asked him, “Have you ever camped out at night? Ever slept in the outdoors, ever?”


“No,” he told me.


“So, what makes you think you would enjoy living in a hole.”


He told me that he wasn’t sure he would enjoy it, but that he was certain he would survive better in a hole in the desert than he would in urban San Diego when western civilization began to collapse with Y2K.  In our conversation, I learned he was affluent, ran a business, and felt that he had a lot to lose as society collapsed.  He also told me that he didn’t know any of his neighbors, and he regarded them more with fear than with friendship.


I suggested that the man get to know his neighbors.  Join some social group, or start participating in Neighborhood Watches. Get to know his actual neighbors and begin to interact with them.  But he told me that he didn’t really have time for that.


“You want to dig a hole in the desert, but you don’t have time to get to know your actual neighbors?” I asked, waiting for his response.  He was quiet, thinking about it.


“Here’s what I also suggest,” I told him. “Take a trip.  Go to the desert if you want, but drive through some of the rural towns in California, and maybe Arizona, and Nevada, and Utah.  Get to know the world beyond your little world. Stop places and have lunch in little cafes. Talk to people.  Go shopping in little stores, and talk to people.  See what makes an impression on you.  If Y2K spelled the death of western civilization, little towns take care of themselves better because that’s what they do all the time.”


The man made a few comments and said, “Yeah, I like that idea.  I might try that. I think it would be good to disappear into a small town.”


It was clear that he believed he could live in a small town and no one would know him.


“Oh, that’s not going to happen,” I told him.  “No one knows you now because you live in a big city. That’s how it is in the big city.  People don’t know each other because they want it that way, or because it’s just too big.  But in a small town, everyone knows your business and who you are, eventually.”


“Really?”  he asked.  I could tell that this man had never ventured far from the confines of his own home and business.


“Yes, really!  No one hides out in a small town. All everyone does is talk, and they will know everything there is to know about you, sooner or later, whether it is true or not.”


I told him the story of when I lived on my grandfather’s farm after high school, in a town of about 3,000 population in northeast Ohio.  My brother and I had painted the kitchen of the farmhouse with flat paint, not glossy, and one of my uncles felt that that proved we were urban idiots who didn’t know the first thing about paint.  Later, when we went to family gatherings, cousins would say, “Oh, you’re the ones who painted the kitchen with flat paint.”  In one case, a woman in a store in the town center said the same thing, as if that’s all there was to know about me!


During the next few conversations with the frightened man, he seemed increasingly calmer.  I don’t know what action he finally took because he stopped calling. 


People who have never lived in a small town probably cannot fathom a place where everyone knows your business, which can be a very negative feature. But a small town is also like a large family, and everyone realizes that their fate is tied to their neighbor.  In this sense, for the health of urban America, and the sustainability of our cities, it’s necessary to become a part of the larger community, to take action, to get involved, and to get to know your neighbors for everyone’s mutual benefit.

Collecting Rain Water

caption: Kevin Sutherland examines the rain barrels.

[Nyerges is the author of “How to Survive Anywhere,””Extreme Simplicity” and other books. He conducts regular survival skills and ethnobotany walks.   He can be reached at Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041, or www.ChristopherNyerges.com.]

At the home of Carol Kampe in Pasadena, California, nearly all the rain that falls on her roof is collected in rain barrels. She showed me the down-spout of the southwest corner of the house which drained into a rain barrel.  This was a large plastic barrel –the type that I’d seen used to import pickles into the United States.  The entire lid could be screwed off to gain access to the water. The top had been modified with a screen to remove debris that came down from the roof, and a spigot was added to the bottom so one could easily use the collected rain water.

Kampe has  10 rain-collecting barrels strategically located to collect the most rain from the house and garage roofs.  Two of the barrels were 65 gallons each, and the other eight were 60 gallons each.  The rain thus collected is used for outdoor purposes only – watering her fruit trees and other plants in the yard.

“Generally, I have enough rain water in my barrels to last me until August,” says Kampe.   This means that she is able to rely on the rain for watering her yard for approximately 2/3 of the year.  She estimates that she saves perhaps $300 a month in payments to the water company.

“But I don’t do this for economic reasons,” Kampe adds.  “I do it because we live in a desert here in Southern California.  Water will become more critical as time goes on.  So it is just a shame to waste all this good rain.”

Kampe has a common-sense approach to her rain harvesting, something that is easy to do and is both ecological and economical. 

She was living in her home just a few years and then purchased seven of the rain-collecting barrels. She has since added three  more. The barrels were purchased for about $100 each by a company that modifies the pickle barrels into rain-collecting barrels.  The company also provides hoses so that the barrels can be connected “daisy-chain,” so that the overflow of one barrel fills other barrels. 

Rain barrels are not light, and water weighs a little over 8 pounds a gallon.  That means a 60 gallon barrel full of rain water weighs in the neighborhood of 480 pounds.  So when planning a rain collecting system like this, one has to recognize that the full barrel is not going to be moved.  Other barrels can be connected to the barrel under the downspout so that the overflow can be collected in a spot away from the house.

Also, Kampe is able to simply unscrew the lid of her rain barrels and scoop out water as needed for individual plants.

Kampe laughed at all the current talk about “living green” as if it were something new.  “We were doing all this back in the 1970s,” she says, describing how they recycled and collected rain in Indiana.

Emphasizing the need to save and conserve water where you have a desert and an ever-increasing population, Kampe echoes Santyana, pointing out that “anyone who doesn’t read history is doomed to repeat it.”