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Many business continuity planners are considering the use of respiratory protection equipment to reduce the threat to staff from pandemic influenza – but such equipment may be of little genuine use, says Jeff Charlton
Summary
This paper assesses the intended or presumed protection factors provided by typical FFP3 and N99 fitted respirators and disposable masks against exposure to harmful substances. The focus is on the general acceptance that established and usually encountered hazardous substances have permitted exposure levels and that mask/respirator leakage or filter failure is acceptable to certain limits. The paper sets out to show that these International standards cannot be used when bacterial, viral agents or TIC (toxic industrial chemical) agents are present. The paper rationalises the accepted mask/respirator protection against known protection failures and assesses the public use of respirators against professional use where engineering controls are demanded. Overall the paper identifies the public and generally misplaced reliance on this type of protection and points towards alternative solutions.
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•Date: 26th May 2006 • Region: World • Type: Article •Topic: Pandemic planning
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