When wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) it is essential to ensure that it’s correctly fitted, otherwise, its effectiveness may be compromised. If Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) is incorrectly fitted, contaminated air may leak through unsealed areas. A user should not enter a contaminated area with an incorrectly fitted face mask. Apart from the actual model of respirator one is using, several factors can affect the fit. These include facial hair, eyewear and jewellery. All tight-fitting respirators should be fit tested, these include disposable masks, half-face masks and full-face masks, whereas loose-fitting respirators, such as air systems do not require face fitting. It is good practice to regularly conduct fit testing and should be repeated in cases where the wearer chooses a different respirator, loses or gains significant weight, suffers a major facial injury, or has significant dental work done. All fit testing should be conducted by someone with the relevant skills, knowledge and experience, as stated in the HSE 282/28.
Types of Fit Testing:
There are two main types of fit testing:
- Qualitative fit testing – Conducted with the use of face test kits, measured by a simple pass or fail. A hood is placed over the wearer and a controlled concentration, bitter or sweet, is sprayed into the hood. If the wearer does not notice the substance, then the respirator is correctly fitted, if they do, then the respirator is incorrectly fitted. This method is designed for use with both disposable respirators and half-face masks.
- Quantitative fit testing – Conducted with a Portable Particle Counting Device (TSI Portacount), measured numerically. It connects a probed facepiece to a counting device, via plastic tubing and measures the number of particles within the face mask and compares this to the number of particles measured in the air. This then gives the resulting fit factor, over 100 is a pass for both disposable respirators and half-face masks and over 2000 is a pass for full face masks.
Part of the legislation in some jurisdictions, our range of qualitative fit test kits are produced by 3M and Alpha Solway, allowing users to be safe in the knowledge that their respiratory protection is keeping them safe against harmful gases, vapours, particles/particulates, fumes, dust, mist and Coronavirus (COVID-19), which in turn allows them to work in a number of industries and applications, such as Construction, Medical, Automotive, Oil & Gas, Pharmaceutical, Dental, Welding, Drilling, Agriculture, Woodworking, Chemical Processing/Handling, Manufacturing, Spray Painting and DIY.