AIBU to want to challenge tourists wearing face-masks...

[Chil1234]

... and ask them what exactly they're afraid of? Japanese people, mostly. Central London. Edinburgh Castle (on a particularly briskly fresh day). I thought fear of 'miasma' went out in the 19th century.

Not new... white surgical/DIY-style masks on elastic placed over the nose and mouth to keep out ... something 'evil' in the atmosphere. The Edinburgh Castle posse were there in August.

Like Riven I have never seen it in London (exception being on some cyclists which seems sensible).

I have often thought a breathing mask would be helpful when my breath is catching in my lungs and the pollution is hanging heavy though.

Chil - they are not necessarily afraid of anything, except perhaps pollen.

I lived in Japan for years, and there are three main reasons that Japanese people wear face masks in public. One is to protect themselves from other people's germs (eg during flu season or SARS or swine flu hysteria). More commonly they wear masks to stop them spreading their own germs through sneezing when they have colds/flu, or to filter out pollen causing allergies - if you go to Tokyo in March you will find half the population wearing allergy face masks to try to keep out the tree pollen. It's perfectly normal in Japan and does not imply that they think the UK is dirty, germ-ridden or whatever.

I know it's not hayfever season at the moment, but I'm finding myself sneezing a lot in the park at the moment - I think it's something to do with fungus spores in autumn?

They may have been warned about some real or imagined epidemic in UK at the moment. Very common here in Hong Kong a few years ago when SARS was about - huge swathes of the population wore them and I doubt they made anyh difference at all.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/354321.stm

www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+41464

oh fgs.

It is so they don't infect other people when they have colds, silly.

Sitting in the doc's waiting room yesterday for half an hour with my grotty virus, trying not to breathe near anyone else, I was wishing we had them here but thinking I would probably start mass hysteria if I tried to introduce them (ie everyone would assume I had something really scary like bubonic plague)