Protection of Firefighters against Combustion Aerosol Particles: Simulated Workplace Protection Factor of a Half-Mask Respirator

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Occup Environ Hyg
• Personal Author:
  Dietrich, James ; Yermakov, Michael ; Reponen, Tiina ; Kulkarni, Pramod ; Qi, Chaolong ; Grinshpun, Sergey A.
• 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.
• Subjects:
  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
• Volume:
  12
• Issue:
  6
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:d0a6ec7961407d9fb67ed05bb68c1dfa6b9306388020fac4a29a92f88d082860
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/35088/cdc_35088_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 403.04 KB ]