The Hamilton County Health Department will no longer distribute the cloth face masks made by a Cleveland, Tennessee, company and is asking the public to no longer wear them.
In a statement released Saturday, the health department said the masks are coated with Silvadur, an anti-microbial substance commonly applied to fabrics to reduce odor causing bacterial growth.
“Only trace amounts of Silvadur are applied to the fabric, and that amount will continually diminish with each wash,” the department said in its statement.
Earlier this month, Tennessee got its first round of 5 million face masks but even then, some people were questioning whether the material is up to snuff.
Gov. Bill Lee’s Unified Command group purchased the masks from Renfro Corp., a Mount Airy, N.C. global designer and distributor of legwear products with a manufacturing and distribution facility in Cleveland, Tennessee. The company’s representatives were not available on Saturday on account of being closed for the weekend.