Respirators Demystified: Picking the Right Protection
Breathing difficulties — When choosing a respirator, straight answers are surprisingly hard to find.
When I was in trade school, one of my instructors—a crusty mason I admired for his encyclopedic building knowledge and cheeky humor—was diagnosed with mesothelioma and died soon after. His disease, a condition associated with asbestos exposure, was almost certainly linked to his decades spent on job sites without protective equipment. Since then, I’ve worn a respirator pretty religiously. But what I hadn’t thought about until I started reporting this story is whether that respirator is really protecting me.
It wasn’t long after my boss asked me to write a quick guide to respirators that my ignorance caught up with me. I assumed that somewhere, there exists an elegant flowchart or decision tree that would have me in and out of this article in a couple days.
Sad to say, it is not so.
While it’s not rocket surgery, a lot more goes into picking…
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How is this article 'demystifying' respirators? This article like so many on this site are short, inadequate, and obviously click-bait content used to beef up this website's online credibility. Just one more reason I'm cancelling my subscription.
I have to agree w/ 458- selecting a respirator IS potentially complex, but the article doesn't give any useful guidelines, even though they do exist. For example, most of us are mostly concerned with particulates- the level of protection is determined by the nature of the particulates- e.g., for asbestos, you need P100. Drywall dust isn't as problematic, both because the particles are larger and because they're not as dangerous. BUT, you should still have some protection.
Testing for fit is also important- the lengthy instruction sheets that come with the masks and various filters address the issue- the article could have done the same. No doubt the lawyers would insist on a disclaimer, but that's not the point- include the disclaimer, then give us the information that will help keep us safe and able to think intelligently about what level and kind of protection we need.