Well, my rational little self would think that ANY specifications should be taken with a grain of salt rather than expecting a product to perform better than the manufacturer is in fact willing to guarantee.

The N95 is guaranteed to stop "95 percent of particles that are 0.3 microns in size or larger". That's it. I'm sure it would help against inhaling dust when the air is polluted from a fire in the distance. So would wrapping a handkerchief over your mouth.

In anything remotely approaching a dangerous or life threatening situation the N95 probably won't do squat. At least little more than pressing a handkerchief over your mouth. In a 9/11 scenario when you have major buildings collapsing in clouds of dust an N95 will last how long, a couple of minutes? And this doesn't even take into account eye protection (hopefully you EDC some quality goggles) and inhaling toxic fumes. No wonder why the firefighter friend of mine nearly laughed his pants off when I brought up the subject of N95 masks for personal preparedness.

I have used N95 and similar masks quite often in the past when I was doing paint removal and other odd jobs around the house. I couldn't help but notice that even the protection against dust is mediocre at best. Grinding steel with an angle grinder for an hour or so and my nose would still be full of black gunk (makes a lot of fun blowing your nose for a few hours afterwards). I sure wouldn't want to run the same test myself standing near a big forest fire or volcanic eruption.