Respiratory protection for firefighters - evaluation of CBRN canisters for use during overhaul II: In mask analyte sampling with integrated dynamic breathing machine

Details

• Personal Author:
  Burgess JL ; Evans H ; Jones L ; Lutz EA
• Description:
  According to the National Fire Protection Association there were 487,500 structural fires in the U.S. in 2013. After visible flames are extinguished firefighters begin the overhaul stage where remaining hot spots are identified and further extinguished. During overhaul, significant amount of potentially hazardous chemicals can remain in the ambient environment. Previous research suggests that the use of air purifying respirators fitted with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) canisters may reduce occupational exposure. This study used large scale burns of representative structural materials to perform side-by-side, filtering and service-life evaluations of commercially available CBRN filters using two head forms fitted with full face respirators and a dynamic breathing machine. Three types of CBRN canisters and one non-CBRN cartridge were challenged in repetitive post-fire environments. Tests were conducted with two different breathing volumes and rates for two sampling durations (0-15 min and 0-60 min). Fifty-five different chemicals were selected for evaluation and results indicate that 10 of the 55 chemicals were present in the post-fire overhaul ambient environment. Acetaldehyde and formaldehyde were found to be the only two chemicals detected post filter but were effectively filtered to below ACGIH TLVs. Counter to our prior published work using continuous flow filter evaluation, this study indicates that regardless of brand, CBRN filters were effective at reducing concentrations of post-fire ambient chemicals to below occupational exposure limits. However, caution should be applied when using CBRN filters as the ambient formaldehyde level in the current study was 8.9 times lower than during the previous work. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Burns Chemical Warfare Agents Chemistry Dust Emergency Responders Environmental Monitoring Firefighters Formaldehyde Laboratories Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Respiratory Protective Devices Respiratory System Safety

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• Keywords:
  Air-purifying-respirators Author Keywords: Breathing Machine Breathing-zone CBRN Chemical-cartridge-respirators Chemical-indicators Chemical-warfare-agents Emergency-responders Equipment-reliability Exposure-assessment Exposure-levels Exposure-limits Filters Fire-fighters Firefighter Formaldehydes Laboratory-testing Overhaul Performance-capability Personal-protective-equipment Respirable-dust Respirators Respiratory-equipment Respiratory-protective-equipment Respiratory Protection Self-contained-breathing-apparatus

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• ISSN:
  1545-9624
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Contract
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Arizona ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  NPPTL - National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  177-184
• Volume:
  13
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20046984
• Citation:
  J Occup Environ Hyg 2016 Mar; 13(3):177-184
• Contact Point Address:
  Leaton Jones, Division of Community, Environment, and Policy, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona,Tucson, Arizona 85721
• Email:
  leaton.jones@labor.nc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2016
• NORA Priority Area:
  Public Safety
• Performing Organization:
  University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:16d61faaf5bd6fe186f0b419d56969a22dba00066b6fdac1e17ffb0b1ff444021f875f5d9abd5dc89022814aead3ad72707549068107d70f90db8b0da0bb135e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/202228/cdc_202228_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 818.44 KB ]