Measure of Work Performance Decrement Due to Respirators

Details

• Personal Author:
  Badylak S ; Eberts C ; McCabe G ; Zimmerman NJ
• Description:
  The effects of respirator wear were determined in 12 subjects using a battery of physical, cognitive and psychomotor tasks. Three types of respirators were studied: a disposable dust mask, an air purifying half mask, and a full face airline respirator. Physical work, studied as the task of bicycle riding, indicated a 10% increase in oxygen consumption with the half and full face masks over the oxygen consumption in the control state, wearing no respirator. Respirator wear did not significantly affect the performance of cognitive tasks. The best indicators of respiratory effects on work performance decrement were the psychomotor task test methods. A steadiness task demonstrated a 31% decrement for the full face respirator condition. The One Hole Test indicated an average movement time decrement of 16%. The authors conclude that, generally, respirators produce an increase in oxygen consumption during physical tasks, and cause decrements in psychomotor performance with regard to hand movement speed and steadiness. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Mental Health Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Respiratory Protective Devices Safety Stress, Psychological
• Keywords:
  Mental-stress NIOSH-Grant Personal-protective-equipment Physical-exercise Respirators Task-performance Work-capability
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  Indiana ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-58
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00197941
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB91-185314
• Citation:
  Department of Medical Chemistry and Pharmacology and School of Health Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 1990 Jan; :1-58
• Contact Point Address:
  Medicinal Chem & Pharmacognosy Purdue Univeristy Dept of Medicinal Chemistry West Lafayette, Ind 47907
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1990
• NORA Priority Area:
  Respirator Research ; Research Tools and Approaches: Control Technology and Personal Protective Equipment
• Performing Organization:
  Purdue University West Lafayette
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  19830701
• Source Full Name:
  Department of Medical Chemistry and Pharmacology and School of Health Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
• End Date:
  19891031
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:cb6b0b9e974cd3fdf9bd17d772ec392031a0883abcc05b089810a577d147611b6b9daf211b7eb0afa3ba9fd8c69324987093c9399e93c9ba7f91187217286803
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/217794/cdc_217794_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.55 MB ]