Particle Size-Selective Assessment of Protection of European Standard FFP Respirators and Surgical Masks against Particles-Tested with Human Subjects.

Shu-An Lee,Chieh-Fu Tsai,He-Yi Li,Dong-Chir Hwang,Chun-Wan Chen,Jen-Kun Chen

doi:10.1155/2016/8572493

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the protection of disposable filtering half-facepiece respirators of different grades against particles between 0.093 and 1.61 μm. A personal sampling system was used to particle size-selectively assess the protection of respirators. The results show that about 10.9% of FFP2 respirators and 28.2% of FFP3 respirators demonstrate assigned protection factors (APFs) below 10 and 20, which are the levels assigned for these respirators by the British Standard. On average, the protection factors of FFP respirators were 11.5 to 15.9 times greater than those of surgical masks. The minimum protection factors (PFs) were observed for particles between 0.263 and 0.384 μm. No significant difference in PF results was found among FFP respirator categories and particle size. A strong association between fit factors and protection factors was found. The study indicates that FFP respirators may not achieve the expected protection level and the APFs may need to be revised for these classes of respirators.

Highlights

Respiratory protective devices (RPDs) are generally used to protect people from respiratory hazards, including chemical, biological, and radioactive materials
There are three reasons for not using the N95 Companion in this study: (1) Generally, only FFP2 respirators use the N95 Companion for fit testing, whereas this type of mask fit tester is unnecessary in conducting fit tests for FFP respirators and surgical masks—which are the focus of this study
The size ranges of viral and bacterial particles fall into this size range, and they are expected to have similar protection factors (PFs)

Summary

Introduction

Respiratory protective devices (RPDs) are generally used to protect people from respiratory hazards, including chemical, biological, and radioactive materials. In the absence of engineering control and effective protection, RPDs can prevent workers in routine operations from life-threatening and health hazards. When RPDs cannot provide users with adequate protection, the risk of users’ exposure to these respiratory hazards will increase and result in adverse health effects. Disposable filtering half-facepiece respirators (DFHFRs), which are classified as air-purifying respirators, are widely used and accepted by workers in various industries and the general population. This is because DFHFRs are available in multiple sizes to fit a range of faces, are easy to maintain, offer little hindrance to wearers [1], and have the highest rating and evaluation in weight and convenience [2]. Numerical designations 95, 99, and 100 show the filter’s minimum filtration efficiency with 95%, 99%, and 99.97%, respectively

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