Journal
JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE
Volume 4, Issue 9, Pages 698-707Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC
DOI: 10.1080/15459620701517764
Keywords
filtering facepiece; respirator performance; WPF; workplace protection factor
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This study evaluated the workplace performance of an N95 filtering facepiece, air-purifying respirator in a steel foundry. Air samples were collected inside and outside respirators worn by workers who were properly trained and qualitatively fit tested. For most workers, three or four pairs of air samples were collected on each of 2 days. The 49 valid sample sets were analyzed for iron, silicon, and zirconium. Only iron was present in sufficient concentrations to perform workplace protection factor (WPF) calculations. Individual WPF measurements ranged from 5 to 753. The geometric mean of the distribution was 119 with a lower 5th percentile value of 19. Time-weighted average WPFs (WPFTWA) were also calculated for each day for each worker as an estimate of the protection an individual might receive with daily respirator use. The WPFTWA values ranged from 15 for the worker with the single WPF value of 5, to a high of 684. The distribution of WPFTWA hod a geometric mean of 120 and a lower 5th percentile of 22. Both data treatments indicate this respirator's performance was consistent with the assigned protection factor of 10 typically used for half facepiece respirators. The respirator provided adequate protection as used in this study. All contaminant concentrations inside the respirator were well below the relevant occupational exposure limits. Data collected also illustrate the dynamic nature of faceseal leakage in the workplace.
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