Surgical mask firm increases production

RICHLAND HILLS, Texas, April 28 (UPI) -- A Texas surgical mask maker says it's increasing production to keep up with demand from U.S. residents worried about a possible swine flu pandemic.

The owners of Prestige Ameritech of Richland Hills, Texas, told Tuesday's Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram they are producing the surgical masks as fast they can roll off the assembly line.

"We're hoping it's not the big one," said Mike Bowen, the company's executive vice president. "And we hope it makes our country wake up to the fact that we're dependent on foreign products."

Bowen was referring to a report by U.S. health officials that warned of a shortage of surgical masks in an emergency because 90 percent of them used in the United States are made elsewhere, largely in Mexico and China.

Company officials told the newspaper that for now, Prestige America is expanding its production line to capacity to make boxes of surgical masks for wholesale distributors and suppliers such as 3M Corp., which sells the masks to hospitals and physicians' offices.