[Filtration performance of dust respirators against nanoparticles]

It is necessary to consider protective measures, such as dust respirators, against the inhalation of nanoparticle aerosols. Industrial hygienists and workers handling nanomaterials are concerned about the filteration performance of dust respirators in protecting against nanoparticles, the size of which is less than 100 nm. We developed a filteration performance evaluating system using titanium dioxide nanoparticle aerosols ranging from 15 to 220 nm in diameter. The system, which includes two models of DS1 class and four models of DS2 class, was used to measure the collection efficiencies of dust respirators. These tested dust respirators had been certified by the Japanese government. In the dust respirators, there were no samples that showed less collection efficiency than the standard certified collection efficiency (80% for DS1 and 95% for DS2).