Details:

Alternative Title:
J Occup Environ Hyg
Publisher's site:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15459624.2015.1006637
Personal Author:
Dietrich, James ; Yermakov, Michael ; Reponen, Tiina ; Kulkarni, Pramod ; Qi, Chaolong ; ... More +
Dietrich, James ; Yermakov, Michael ; Reponen, Tiina ; Kulkarni, Pramod ; Qi, Chaolong ; Grinshpun, Sergey A. ; Less -
Description:
The present pilot study investigated the penetration of ultrafine particles originated by combustion of different materials into elastomeric half-mask respirators equipped with two P100 filters. We determined the Simulated Workplace Protection Factor (SWPF) for 11 firefighters wearing elastomeric half-mask respirators and performing activities simulating those conducted during fire overhaul operations. The tests were performed in a controlled laboratory setting. A newly-developed battery-operated Portable Aerosol Mobility Spectrometer (PAMS) was used to measure size-resolved aerosol particle concentrations outside (C(out)) and inside (Cin) of an air-purifying respirator donned on a firefighter, and the SWPF was calculated as C(out)/C(in). Based on the total aerosol concentration, the "total" SWPF ranged from 4,222 (minimum) to 35,534 (maximum) with values falling primarily in a range from 11,171 (25 percentile) to 26,604 (75 percentile) and a median value being ≈15,000. This is consistent with the recently reported fit factor (FF) data base.((1)) The size-resolved SWPF data revealed a dependency on the particle size. It was concluded that a portable device such as PAMS can be used on firefighters during overhaul operations (as well as on other workers wearing elastomeric half-mask respirators) to monitor the aerosol concentrations in real time and ultimately help prevent overexposure.
Subject:
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Article
Combustion Aerosol
Elastomeric Half-mask
Firefighters
Simulated Workplace Protection Factor

Source:
J Occup Environ Hyg. 12(6):415-420.
Pubmed ID:
25625543
Pubmed Central ID:
PMC4610121
Document Type:
Journal Article ;
Funding:
CC999999/Intramural CDC HHS/United States ; T42-OH008432/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States ;
CC999999/Intramural CDC HHS/United States ; T42-OH008432/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States ; Less -
Collection(s):
CDC Public Access
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:d0a6ec7961407d9fb67ed05bb68c1dfa6b9306388020fac4a29a92f88d082860
File Type:

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