Workplace protection factor measurements on powered air-purifying respirators at a secondary lead smelter: results...

A study was conducted at a secondary lead smelter to evaluate the workplace performance of the 3M W-344 and Racal AH3 powered air-purifying respirators equipped with helmets and high efficiency filters. The research protocol developed for the study has been described in a companion paper. The results of the study indicate that the mean lead concentrations, measured inside the facepiece of both PAPRs, were significantly less than the OSHA lead exposure limit of 50 micrograms/m3. The means of the workplace protection factor measurements on both PAPRs were significantly less than the PAPR selection guide protection factor classification of 1000. Correlation analysis of preshift quantitative fit factors and corresponding workplace protection factors indicated no linear association between these two measures of performance. This finding suggests that for PAPRs equipped with helmets and high efficiency filters quantitative fit factors as presently determined are not indicative of the workplace protection which the respirators provide. Since the PAPR protection factor classification of 1000 was originally based on quantitative fit factors, the lack of a demonstrated association between quantitative fit factors and workplace protection as found in this study may explain why their performance was significantly less than expected.