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Comment by aftbit | Hacker News Reader

3M 6800 have all but sold out on Amazon, probably because of this review. I had almost forgotten about Portland in 2020. This author has some great writing about the double standard of non-violence as well. 10/10

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I would generally use McMaster-Carr whenever possible. They will almost never go out of stock even during national crises. I don't generally trust Amazon for items that I can't validate myself due to counterfeiting, e.g. there's a lot of fake knockoff HEPA filters marketed as OEM.

3M 6000 full-face masks: https://www.mcmaster.com/5541T605/

The image shows just a particulate filter, but the listing actually includes 3M bayonet-style cartridges for chemical exposure.

Zoro still has them in stock. If you haven't heard of them, they are a subsidiary of Grainger, a huge industrial supply company. They seem to ship even faster than Amazon in my experience.

https://www.zoro.com/3m-full-facepiece-reusable-respirator-w...

Another curious historical point: gas masks were banned in Seattle, back in '99. I'm unsure if that was repealed because the majority of search results are about a new law regarding masked law enforcement.

https://www.historylink.org/File/2145

Buying safety equipment on Amazon is extremely dumb. You won't know that you got a fake until it's too late.

Very recently Amazon announced they'd stop commingling inventory from 3P sellers and themselves, so it should be safer to buy from Amazon in the future (if you look at the specific seller), but still maybe worth avoiding for safety critical items which are difficult to inspect.

They still need to prove that isn't just a saying. A good reputation takes a long time to develop and very little time to lose. With safety gear I would not take a chance.

If I'm going to take a chance I'd prefer to support a small company. Amazon is big, but I find most things they sell I can find a small company that sells the same for a similar price and they know their product and so will direct me to what works well.

There are some products where I absolutely don't take a chance (I buy all my tourniquets/etc from North American Rescue, who are the manufacturer or primary distributor, directly), but for a while I wouldn't even buy razor blades from Amazon because of the risk of getting fakes or commingled inventory from shoplifting gangs. I'm willing to take that level of risk on Amazon policy now.

As long as they don't make a mistake and send the wrong thing anyway, which happens. You're always better off getting safety critical items from a place that only stocks from a verified supply chain, rather than a place that keep them separate merely by policy.

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