Evaluation of a new instrument for aerosol quantitative fit testing.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Grinshpun SA ; Leppänen M ; Wu B ; Yermakov M
• Description:
  Millions of workers exposed to various hazards perform fit testing to assure anticipated protection of their respirators. This testing has been conducted for about two decades mainly with a TSI PortaCount(R), an instrument that measures the aerosol concentrations inside and outside the respirator using a condensation nuclei counting principle. Recently, a new fit testing instrument, Fit Tester (MT-05U) was developed for quantitative fit testing based on the optical particle counting (OPC). The objective of this study was to explore if this type of particle counter can be used for quantitative respirator fit testing. The study was performed in accordance with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the American Industrial Hygiene Association Z88.10-2010 criteria for evaluating new fit test methods with the TSI PortaCount(R) as the reference apparatus. The overall fit factors were measured with the two instruments operating in parallel with respirators donned by 26 subjects performing the standard OSHA exercises during fit testing. The experiments were conducted with three types of high-efficiency particulate filtering respirators: P100 filtering facepiece, and two elastomeric respirators, half facepiece and full facepiece. The results showed that the MT-05U can correctly identify an inadequate fit of the tested respirators as compared with the reference instrument (with a sensitivity between 0.98 and 1.00, exceeding the ANSI requirement of ≥ 0.95). The other advisory ANSI requirements/recommendations for statistics (i.e., predictive value of a pass, specificity, predictive value of a fail, and kappa statistics) were also met. Due to the difference in operational particle size ranges of the two instruments, fit factors within pair comparison measured by MT-05U were generally lower than fit factors measured by PortaCount(R). In conclusion, the new OPC-based MT-05U showed an acceptable performance in quantifying a respirator fit and, thus, can serve as an alternative method for respirators equipped with high-efficiency filters. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aerosols Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Respiratory Protective Devices Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Quantitative Respirator Fit Testing; Optical Particle Counter; OPC; Condensation Nuclei/Particle Counter; CNC/CPC; Filtering Facepiece Respirator; Elastomeric Half Facepiece Respirator; Elastomeric Full Facepiece Respirator Respirators; Respiratory Protection; Personal Protective Equipment; PPE; Aerosols; Fit Testing; Particle Counters;
• ISSN:
  0892-6298
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  111-127
• Volume:
  34
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20065097
• Citation:
  J Int Soc Respir Prot 2017 Jul; 34(2):111-127
• Contact Point Address:
  Sergey A. Grinshpun, Center for Health-Related Aerosol Studies, Department of Environmental Health, University of Cincinnati, PO Box 670056, Cincinnati, OH 45267-0056, USA
• Email:
  sergey.grinshpun@uc.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2017
• Performing Organization:
  University of Cincinnati
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of the International Society for Respiratory Protection
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ec57e4a4ef6e1a91b672f14cb6310b4baa1c6ef19c5d4ee3e98b3c2ad907b101c35e0259b1c0f86a3ae39431e8169d9414d7ce2590a0d639ea27653d2b2d5ff9
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/249332/cdc_249332_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 737.88 KB ]