Tips for Choosing a Good Respirator

Protecting employees against the danger of breathing in dusts and airborne contaminants is vital to remove the threat of those contracting respiratory associated disease. The best product in such scenarios is a dust mask.

Employee exposure to dusts like silica may lead to potentially serious, and in certain cases, life threatening respiratory diseases like lung cancer, silicosis, occupational asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Often times, workers that are left without appropriate protection and vulnerable to dusts and silicas won't necessarily reveal the signs of disease or damage till decades have passed by.

Therefore prevention is crucial and choosing the ideal kinds of respiratory protective equipment (RPE) is essential for protecting employees.

respirator
respirator
dust mask
dust mask
Higher Risk Environments :
Protecting workers against dust inhalation is important regardless of what sector you're working in. But some industries have a greater incidence of respiratory and dust risks in them. These can include:
  •  Construction, Building and demolition - using high use of concrete, rock, brick and mortar
  • Quarrying, mining and slate processing
  •  Potteries, ceramics, brick and tile manufacturing
  •  Foundries
  •  Refractory production and cutting
  •  Concrete product manufacture
  •  Architectural masonry manufacture
  •  Kitchen cabinet and worktop manufacture
  •  Grit and abrasive blasting, particularly on sandstone
  •  Carpentry
  •  Recycling
  •  Agriculture
Many common building materials include silica such as, as an example, asphalt, brick, cement, concrete, drywall, grout, mortar, stone, sand, and tile.

Protecting workers who'll come into contact with materials such as dusts and silica is vital since it actually only takes a little bit of silica dust to make a health hazard.

So where employees are exposed to dusts, mists and fumes, the perfect situation would be to remove any possible contact between the employee and the dust threat and use good quality respirator.

Where working practices can't be shifted to remove risks entirely, it's important to provide employees with the ideal level of respiratory protection. The most frequent kind of security is dust masks.

Selecting the Right Dust Mask for Your Needs :

To make sure you're protected, all of dust masks and respirators provided for use at work has to be accepted to the proper standard.

Such respirators are intended to filter out particulates like dust, fluids and fluids. Some manufacturers offer you an easy colour-coding system that will help you easily differentiate each item's filtering functionality. This makes it simple to identify the right respirator.

Even if you've got this advice, finding an acceptable respirator isn't simply a matter of choosing a version you like the appearance of, or even purchasing the lowest priced.

There are some broader concerns you will need to take into consideration.
  • Identify type and degree of contaminant exposure
  • Assess airborne hazards in office (or workshop)
  • Pick comfortable and suitable mask
  • When in doubt go with a greater degree of security
Buy only good fitting masks:

Not all faces are the exact same and are disposable respirators. You may need to try unique sizes or makes to locate one which matches without bending around the seal and allowing dust in.

The only way that you can know whether the seal is great enough is using a suitable face fit evaluation. Now this is also the only way of fulfilling legal requirements.

For advice and support on which dust masks you need to properly protect workers, to find the best match browse through our product list or call us on (800) 637-6606.

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