CHARLESTON — The state’s top law enforcement official continued to defend the purchase of 200,000 masks for coronavirus preparations — some of which went to emergency services and first-responder groups — even though some of the masks were the wrong kind and the prices were inflated.

Jeff Sandy, cabinet secretary for the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, said Wednesday that only 50,000 of the 200,000 N95 masks purchased March 23 were the wrong kind.

In March, DMAPS purchased 100,000 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health-approved N95 respiratory masks through Ballard Safety LLC, based in Martinsburg. The Department of Health and Human Resources also purchased 100,000 NIOSH-approved N95 masks the same day through the same vendor.

The combined total of both purchases was $1.2 million, or $5.80 per mask. 3M, a major manufacturer of N95 masks, sells surgical N95 masks for between 68 cents and $1.78 per unit. Standard N95 masks from 3M can range from 63 cents to $3.40 per unit depending on the kind of mask. Sandy said the state got a considerably better deal than states that were paying as much as $9 per mask during the same period.

“The pricing today is a lot different than it was at the beginning of the pandemic,” Sandy said. “The prices that we paid at that point on March 23 when we got our first shipment in, that was for the NIOSH and other masks. Those were reasonable prices.”

The order from Ballard went through five different entities before being fulfilled by Dasheng Health Products Manufacturing, based in Shanghai, China. Sandy said that 75 percent of the order – 150,000 masks – were Dasheng’s NIOSH-approved N95 mask which includes a head band to keep the mask tightly sealed over the face.

The remaining 50,000 masks received were a Chinese variant manufactured by Dasheng called an KN95 mask, which includes ear loops which are not NIOSH-approved because the masks don’t provide the same type of tight seal as a N95 mask with a head band.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of authentic imported non-NIOSH-approved masks for the COVID-19 outbreak as long as there is a mask shortage. Sandy said his office is evaluating the KN95 masks to see how effective they are at blocking out small particles, water droplets and aerosols.

“We are currently in the process of getting the data on the (KN95) masks,” Sandy said. “Those masks are being used by first-responders throughout the world.”

Of the 100,000 masks purchased by Military Affairs and Public Safety DMAPS, 50,000 were given to Health and Human Resources. Of the remaining 50,000 masks, 40,000 were delivered to city and county law enforcement, paid and volunteer firefighters and county emergency management agencies, 9,000 were sent to the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation and 1,600 were sent to two hospitals.

Some of the masks sent to first-responders and fire departments included the KN95 masks, raising concerns at first that the masks were counterfeit. An April 16 memo to first-responders from Sandy detailed an investigation and found the masks were genuine Dasheng products, but that some of the masks included the non-compliant masks with the ear loops instead of the head bands.

The West Virginia State Firemen’s Association released a statement Wednesday criticizing Sandy and DMAPS for sending first-responders ineffective masks.

“The members of the West Virginia State Firemen’s Association are deeply concerned to learn that personal protective equipment provided by the state to first responders does not meet NIOSH guidelines and therefore may expose its members to possible infection,” wrote Jerry Loudin, president of the association.

“It is a serious concern of our association that we would be put in this type of precarious situation,” Loudin continued. “By trusting the equipment to protect them, our members may have unknowingly placed themselves in situations that put them at further risk.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com