Notice that their is NO MASK MANDATE in the area of the toxic chemical disaster. And if there was, the mask required would be orders of magnitude more secure than a surgical cloth, and that, is still orders of magnitude less serious than one which works against a virus.
Anyone working around vinyl chloride gas MUST be on supplied air (SCBA). All the carbon in the world will not filter VC – it rips right through it. Breakthrough can be measured in seconds.