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Respirator fit of a medium mask on a group of South Africans: a cross-sectional study
Adri Spies1, Kerry S Wilson, Robert Ferrie
1University of the Witwatersrand, School of Public Health, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa.
Background:
In South Africa, respiratory protective equipment is often the primary control method used to protect workers. This preliminary study investigated how well a common disposable P2 respirator fitted persons with a range of facial dimensions.
Methods:
Quantitative respirator fit tests were performed on 29 volunteers from different racial, gender and face size groups. Two facial dimensions width (bizygomatic) and length (menton-sellion) were measured for all participants.
Results:
In this study 13.8% of the participants demonstrated a successful fit with the medium sized mask. These included participants from three different racial and both gender groups. The large percentage of failed fit tests (86%) indicates that reliance on off-the-shelf respirators could be problematic in South Africa.
Conclusions:
The limitations of this preliminary study notwithstanding, respirator fit appear to be associated with individual facial characteristics and are not specific to racial/ethnic or gender characteristics.
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