Categories Women Men Young Adult Kids Shoes Baby Home Patio Garden Furniture Kitchen Dining Toys Electronics Video Games Movies, Music Books Sports Outdoors Beauty Personal Care Health Household Essentials Pets Grocery Luggage School Office Supplies Party Supplies Bullseyes Playground Clearance Holiday Shop Target Finds Whats New Deals Clearance Weekly Ad Top Deals RedCard Exclusives Target Circle Offers Registry More Options RedCard Gift Cards Find Stores Favorites Pharmacy Gift Ideas Get it fast Drive Up Order Pickup Free 2-Day Shipping Same Day Delivery Menu Categories Deals Whats New Pickup Delivery my account cart 0 items Registry Weekly Ad RedCard Gift Cards Find Stores Orders Favorites More Orders Account information See offer details.

Restrictions apply.

Pricing, promotions and availability may vary by location and at Target.com.

Help Shipping Delivery Returns Track Orders Size Charts Contact Us Feedback Accessibility See All Help Help Stores Find a Store Clinic Optical Pharmacy Photo Center Stores Apps Target for iOS Target for Android Gift Registry for iOS Gift Registry for Android Apps Social Pinterest Facebook Instagram Twitter Youtube Social More RedCard Emails Careers Advertise With Us Bullseye Shop News Blog Corporate Responsibility Security and Fraud Investor Relations Pressroom Affiliates Suppliers Team Member Services More The latest on our store health and safety plans Recalls Terms Interest-Based Ads CA Privacy Rights CA Supply Chain Act Privacy Do Not Sell My Personal Information - CA Resident Only 2021 Target Brands, Inc.

As wildfires, measles outbreaks and air quality alerts become more frequent, customers are turning to face mask manufacturers for protection against germs, allergens and other air particles.

At the first day of Burning Man in Nevada last year, extreme dust storms blew up.

Credit. Reno Gazette-Journal-Usa Today NetworkSipa Usa Supported by Continue reading the main story By Ilaria Parogni Aug.

When tens of thousands of people descend on Nevadas Black Rock Desert in August for Burning Man, they should expect dust.

A windstorm could sweep through the site at any moment, swirling the highly alkaline playa sand into clouds, and shrouding the festivals temporary city and its attendants under its cloak.

Vogmask, a reusable face mask with an air filter, was designed with Burners in mind, but is intended to address environmental concerns broadly.

When Marc Brown attended Burning Man in 2011, he was disappointed that there were no cool-looking, highly efficient filtering face masks to be found on the playa, despite the risk of what Burners have termed playa lung, an infection caused by the inhalation of alkaline silica dust from the desert.

So he and his mother, Wendover Brown, decided to make their own, working with medical design engineers to ensure its efficacy.

Since founding Vogmask in 2012, they have seen demand rise, not just in the United States but around the world.

Vogmask is just one in a small but growing category of products designed to help people navigate an increasingly polluted planet.

Credit. Andy BarronThe Reno Gazette-Journal, via Associated Press Ali Aubuchon, a performance artist and speech language pathologist from New York City, experienced playa lung twice during her first three years at Burning Man.

She now makes sure to have a mask on at all times in Black Rock City.

Protective face masks are a common accessory in countries such as Japan, where they are meant to prevent the spread of illness, and China, where they are often used as protection against the countrys alarmingly high air pollution levels.

Mitsutoshi Horii, a sociology professor at Shumei University in Japan, has studied the use of face masks in Japanese culture.

In a Skype call, he said that wearing the masks, a practice imported from the United States in 1919 after the Spanish influenza outbreak the year prior, evolved over the course of the 20th century into an accessory people use to deal with a variety of problems, such as airborne disease, air pollution and allergies.

Mr. Horii also sees the masks as a form of control over contemporary anxieties, like some religious rituals and superstitions.

When people feel uncertainty, masks are very easily accessible, he said.

By wearing them people just feel safe, like they are doing something.

Image Billie Eilish performing at Glastonbury Festival this summer in a mask thats more stylish than practical.

Credit. Jim DysonGetty Images Now, back in the United States, stylized surgical masks have appeared in celebrity paparazzi photos, pop stars tour wardrobes and fashion collections.

Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Pharrell Williams and Pete Davidson have been spotted wearing them.

Virgil Ablohs Off-White label has its own line of face masks.

And on Etsy, there are thousands of listings for handmade cloth surgical masks that are cute, but probably wont keep you from getting sick.

Hannah and Anthony Martinez of Logan, Utah, decided to start their own line of masks after attending Lucidity, a festival in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Afterwards our allergies were so bad, and there was so much dust and gunk, Ms.

Martinez said. The couple, who began selling rave and festival clothing on Etsy last year, made their first dust masks out of leftover fabric.

Now their line includes a vibrant array of masks decorated with sequins, constellation drawings and abstract patterns.

For many people, however, the draw of these masks is purely practical.

Sipa Masks