Disposable filtering facemasks

Summary: Disposable (single use or non-reusable) filtering face masks are widely used for respiratory protection in occupational safety, for clinical or medical uses, for disease prevention, for clean room operation (human contamination control), for food safety and so on.  These masks are broadly classified, for convenience purpose, in 2 major categories – the face masks and respirator masks. Their functions and limitations are described in this article.

Introduction:

Many Sarawakian’s first experience seeing people wearing facemask on the streets started some years ago when the air was filled with thick haze generated from open-air burnings related to bush fires or land clearing agricultural activities. People were seen wearing various types of disposable facemasks including the single use paper dust masks, surgical masks and home made washable fabric masks to protect them from breathing in the polluted air particles.  I believed that many of them in face did not know what to wear for the haze.  They used whatever was available.

Were they protected from the hazy air? I did not think so because these disposable facemasks are not good enough to filter the airborne fine carbon particles.  Instead, N95 (American mask ratings) and FFP2 (European mask ratings) are the lowest types of dust masks that should be used to filter the hazy pollutant. But most people do not know what are N95 and FFP2.

Not only that, many who are working in the dusty workplaces do not know too what to choose for their respiratory protection.

This article shall explain to you some of the basics on disposable dust masks. You will know more about the masks you are wearing or how to select the right types of mask for the protection you need.

Disposable filtering dust masks:

Disposable filtering dust masks are widely used today for various purposes, for example:

• For personal hygiene
• In occupation safety – for respiratory protection against dusts and mists
• In clinical and medical uses – for disease prevention
• In clean room operation and for food safety – for human contamination control

US-NIOSH (United States – National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health) together with CDC (Centers for Disease Control) recommended the surgical mask and N95 respirator mask for H1N1 flu prevention in conjunction with other personal hygienic practices such as washing hands.

Types of disposable filtering dust masks:

To avoid confusion, US-NIOSH categorized commercial available disposable dust masks in 2 major groups – the facemasks and respirator masks.

(A). Facemasks

(A1). Paper masks

(A2). SBPP facemasks

(B). Respirator masks

(B1). American Ratings – N95, N99, R95, R99, N100, P100 etc

(B2). European Ratings – FFP1, FFP3, FFP3 etc

Their functions and limitations are described below:

(A). Facemasks

(A1). Paper masks

One of the most common paper masks selling in the local market is the Nurse Brand 1-ply and 2-ply single use paper mask (with elastic ear loops) packed in 100 pieces per dispenser box. They are cheap and widely used in clinic as single use disposable mask for personal hygiene.

We have customers in the beverages and food processing industry   using them for human contamination control.

As they are made of thin paper, they are useless when wet and can be torn easily.  They will burst when you sneeze or cough. They are not suitable for industrial usage and not for haze or H1N1 flu.

Unfortunately, when our air was filled with haze, many people were given and wore this type of mask when they went out-door.  They thought they were protected but they were not.

(A2). SBPP masks

Made of SBPP (Spunbond Polypropylene) fabric with elastic ear loops, elastic head loops or non-elastic head ties, they are more durable and resistant to wetness than the paper facemasks. They made in green, blue, pink or white color. There are 2-ply or 3-ply SBPP masks and are commonly known as surgical masks.

SBPP masks are used for

• Clinical and surgical mask
• Personal hygiene
• For clean-room operation
• For food safety

They are pack in 50 pieces per bag or per dispenser box.

US-NIOSH together with CDC recommended wearing 3-ply surgical mask for H1N1 prevention. (See my earlier articles “Correct use of facemask or respirator for influenza prevention”)

SBPP 2-ply and 3-ply mask, however, are not recommended for toxic industrial dusts or chemical dusts or for mists that produce toxic vapors.  They do not give adequate protection against haze that consists of mainly fine carbon particles.

(B). Respirator masks

(B1). The American Ratings

For locals, the best known disposable respirator mask is perhaps the N95 mask because of their heavy advertisements when haze first attacked our countries many years ago.  N95 is American NIOSH (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health) rating given to filtering dust masks that capture at least 95% of the airborne particles (0.3 micron in size or larger) used in the testing.

There are 7 classes of respirator mask given by American NIOSH:

Table extracted from NIOSH web page http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/topics/respirators/disp_part/default.html

N95, N99, N100 – Used for water based dust and water based mist only; not for oil based dust and oil based mist.

R95, P95, P99 and P100 – Can be used for both water based and oil based dust and mist.

N100 and P100 are HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air filters that will remove at least 99.97% of airborne particles 0.3 micron in diameter or larger.

(C2). The European Ratings:

European countries have their own set of Ratings for dust masks.  They are

• FFP1 (Low efficiency)
• FFP2 (Medium efficiency)
• FFP3 (High efficiency)

In European countries, only masks in compliance with EC Directive 89/686 (such as FFP2 and FFP3) are recommended for respiratory protection against airborne particles such as H1N1 flu virus.  Disposable nuisance dust masks and 3-ply SBPP Surgical masks do not carry EC markings are not recommended for H1N1 because they do not comply with this legislation.

WHO (World Health Organization) recommended wearing FFP2 mask as precautionary measure when no H1N1 infection is indicated.  For H1N1 caretakers (including handling infected animals), FFP3 masks are recommended.

US-NIOSH together with CDC recommended the surgical mask for precautionary measure when no infection is indicated.  For H1N1 caretakers (including handling of infected animals), N95, N99 or P100 masks are recommended.

Disposable respirator masks for occupational safety

Disposable dust masks should not be used for occupational safety.  They are not efficient filter to protect our respiratory organs from harmful dusts and fume.

You should read recommendation on respirators or masks from product labels or MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) and only those carry American or European Ratings or other international markings should be used for occupational safety. One of the most basic rules you must remember is that they must not be used in oxygen deficient condition (when and where oxygen is too low to sustain life).

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What for wearing a respirator if it does not fitted well to your face

You may spend a lot of money buying one of the best respirator in the market but if will not protect you from harmful polluted air if you do not fit it well onto your face.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon, during my visits to factory, to find that not everyone using respirator has the face piece fitted well and many of them did not go through the fitting procedure to ensure proper fitting.  I have in some occasions even seeing people wearing respirator upside down.  I asked him “Why are you wearing your respiratory this way?” He told me, “This way I feel more comfortable…..”  You may laugh, but I don’t because it is a serious mistake to wear respirator like that and the result could be fatal in a critical environment.

Remember, you must be trained to do positive and negative test when you are donning a respirator the first time onto your face.  These qualitative tests will ensure that there is no leakage from the sides of the respirator face piece. You must do these tests whenever you wear a respirator and before you entering the contaminated area.

Why fit test is important? Because you want the air you are breathing in to pass through the air-purifying filters or cartridge that will remove the harmful pollutants.  You do not want un-filtered polluted air to leak into your respirator face piece.  If after fit test, you can not get a air-tight fitting, you should try some other models of respirator or another size. Respirator face piece does come in different sizes, S, M or L although the medium size can fit well to the majority of the population.

Respirator face piece fit test is critical important for SCBA donning and in fact for wearing any respirator before entering into critical environment.  Safety Supervisor must make sure that every one using respirator especially the ERT (Emergency Response Team) members are well trained.  Negative and positive fit test of respirator face piece can be done you self without help from some one else, if you know how to do it.

Is fit testing difficult? Absolutely NOT and on the contrary, it is quite simple.

One of my friend’s sons has started working in a car body repairing workshop recently.  His works include metal cutting, cleaning, welding and even paint spraying.   He came to see me for safety advice because he is not receiving safety training in his work. He felt disappointed after talking to me because he was not given the basic safety gear for his works I told him that he has the right to ask for them and if the employer does not provide him with all the safety equipment and training he needs, don’t work for him.

Will you do the same if you were him?  If you walk into the workshops and factories in your town, do you see these things around?

Remember, earning a living does not means checking in your health or life for it and there is existing laws protecting you.

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Writing Your Factory’s Own Safety Programme

You are the owner of a factory and have spent money buying Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as safety spectacles, goggles, earplug, earmuff, respirators etc but still find that the safety standard of your factory is not improving because the workers do not use them in a satisfactory manner.

You feel that money spent was not justified because your workers are just too reluctant to use them even though you have told them to use them properly for their protection.

Do you wonder why?

The main reason, as I see it, is that you do not have a written safety programme for your factory. Without a written programme, you, your company, your management and the end users – your workers, are not committed to improve the safety standard of your factory and for the sake of their safety and health.

You may have trained the workers when issuing them the PPE but such training soon are forgotten and you find most of the PPE issued is out of their proper places. It is not uncommon finding that wrong cartridges or filters are used on the respirators for the protection required. Asking the users why and the answers are always “I do not know”, or “They just give me these so I use them”.

Question: Can all these be eliminated so that everybody involved will be happy about using PPE?

Answer: YES. It can be done provided you do take the trouble to write you own safety programme.

Question: Your next question could then be – I do not know how to write a safety programme and I do not want to pay a large sum of money for someone else to write one for me. Consultant fee is expensive.

Answer: In fact, you can write you own safety programme if you want to and you do not have to ask a consultant to do that for you. An experienced sales person on PPE should be able to help you with all the information you need to write the programme.

It is within our package of supply and service that when we deliver PPE to our customers, we would like to make sure that they know how to use them properly. The safety programme will normally be introduced to them during the product training and it is up to the management to decide what to incorporate into their safety programme.

Such training is free of charge for our customers if you are operating in Kuching, Sarawak or somewhere near. You can contact us for more information about our service.

At the meantime, you may check on our website for more articles on safety programme from time to time.

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