During the current COVID-19 pandemic and increased levels of air pollution, wearing a face mask is recommended. The main goal of this work was to examine whether wearing protective masks affects the saturation of hemoglobin with oxygen, and whether there are differences in the effect of masks with regard to the type of protective mask, gender, smoking habit and physical activity. The research was conducted by measuring the participants' pulse oximetry in the period from January 15 to March 30, 2022. A total of 150 respondents participated. The study proved two pre-set hypotheses, namely that wearing a surgical and FFP2 mask for 15 and 60 minutes does not affect hemoglobin oxygen saturation, and that the effect of surgical and FFP2 masks on hemoglobin oxygen saturation does not differ with respect to gender, smoking habit and short-term physical activity. To conduct this research, a pulse oximeter, manufactured by ChoiceMMed, was used as a research instrument. Surgical masks and FFP2 masks were used. This study showed that surgical and FFP2 masks do not affect Hb oxygen saturation measured by pulse oximeter in young healthy people during rest and mild physical activity, and differences were not recorded between male and female gender and between smokers and non-smokers. This research was first conducted on students during classes, using the two main types of masks that were recommended during the pandemic. Therefore, it can be concluded that the masks do not disturb the respiratory processes in students during the monitoring of classes in the form of lectures, seminars and exercises.