Oxygen transmission rate

Do you know that we need oxygen to live? We breathe in oxygen and it travels through our body to give us energy and help us grow. But when we store things like food or medicine, we need to make sure that oxygen doesn't get in and ruin them. Oxygen transmission rate is a way to measure how much oxygen can pass through a material, like plastic or glass.

Think of a balloon. If you blow air into it, the balloon gets bigger because the air can't escape through the rubber. But if you poke a tiny hole in the balloon, the air can slowly leak out. The same thing happens with packaging materials. Oxygen can slowly leak through the material and spoil the food or medicine inside.

Oxygen transmission rate measures how much oxygen can pass through a material in a certain amount of time. We use this rate to know how long something can be stored before it spoils. For example, if we know that a certain medicine has an oxygen transmission rate of 0.001 cc/m2/day, we can calculate how long it can be stored before it is exposed to too much oxygen.

So, oxygen transmission rate is like a fence that stops oxygen from getting in and spoiling our stuff. It helps us keep things fresh and safe for longer.