Company disputes recalled N95 masks are fake
A local company is disputing that more than 100,000 N95 masks recalled from health authorities across the province in January are counterfeit, as the province and 3M claim.
According to an information note prepared for Health Minister Dr. John Haggie on Jan. 7, in October 2020 the department responsible for the supply chain of the regional health authorities, Shared Services-supply Chain (SS-SC), purchased N95 masks from Berg Water, a company based in Mount Pearl.
In December 2020, 3M posted a notification, including lot numbers, on its website of fraudulent and counterfeit N95 masks, and the following month staff with SS-SC checked it against their inventory.
“It was determined that 100,560 counterfeit masks were entered into inventory in late November 2020, with 1,320 of these being issued to facilities in Eastern Health, Central Health and Western Health,” the note reads. “These masks were purchased from the vendor, Berg Water, an NL company, which is not an authorized 3M distributor.”
Saltwire Network contacted the Department of Health and was directed to Central Health, which oversees SS-SC. A spokesperson for Central Health said that within hours of the health authority being made aware of the issue, the masks were removed from all facilities, the stakeholders were informed and the supplier was notified.
Most of the masks were recovered, minus 180 that were never accounted for. Central Health said since “they were first issued in late 2020, it can reasonably be assumed that those 180 masks (that remain unaccounted for) were used.”
The regional health authorities said that prior to the masks being purchased, they received documentation that validated the masks to be authentic 3M N95 respirators and the local supplier, Berg Water, had samples shipped from China to be reviewed by occupational health and safety professionals within the regional health authorities, who deemed them to be authentic.
Tony Kenny, president of Berg Water, told Saltwire that when he saw the government was looking for personal protective equipment last year, his company initially supplied disposable surgical masks and gloves to the province, and then the province came to Berg Water looking for N95 masks. He had the samples sent from China and tested.
Kenny said he was shocked when he was contacted by the government about the masks being counterfeit.
“I reached out to 3M on my own. I wanted to make sure what I was selling was real,” he said. “I asked if they were saying that all masks with these lot numbers are fake. And they said no.”
Kenny says he was told these were the most likely lot numbers to be used on counterfeit masks, but that didn’t mean all masks with those lot numbers were counterfeit.
Kenny said at that point he contacted the government and offered to have the masks tested, which cost him over $4,800.
He said the testing was for surgical-grade N95 masks, not standard-grade N95 masks.
“They tested at a higher level and 23 passed, nine failed,” he said. “It was deemed failed, on that specific test. I went to 3M and they were impressed that 23 of them passed at that level. If it had been tested at 3M they all probably would have passed.”
When asked by Saltwire if they had determined if the masks were counterfeit, Central Health said they contacted 3M and, based on those conversations and the notice that the company published on its website, they determined these were counterfeit.
Central Health confirmed it did send a quantity to a testing facility in conjunction with the supplier that did not pass as a Level 3 mask, which is surgical grade. N95 masks can range from Level 1 to Level 3, depending on what grade is required.
“No one has ever proved to me these masks are counterfeit,” Kenny said. “I did what I could reaching out to 3M and having them sent to an independent lab. I don’t know what else we could do.”