Bowie, David

GTC-AMAS, Kirkhill Industrial Estate, Aberdeen, Scotland

With wear periods of 2-3 hours between breaks, even slight discomfort rapidly becomes unbearable. If the straps are too tight, the face rapidly becomes sore and headaches common. If the respirator is too uncomfortable, it may not be fitted correctly. In warm weather or when working on hot surfaces, sweating becomes a problem, the mask fills up with sweat, slips about on the face and the visor becomes misty. Given the often poor lighting conditions inside asbestos enclosures and poor underfoot conditions, any vision restrictions or scratching of the visor causes safety problems. Full-masks seriously muffle speech. This is important as apart from work communication, people are social animals. Much work is carried out in restricted space, respirator bulk and the presence of flapping breathing pipes etc. can cause difficulty or safety hazards.

The presentation will highlight the above problems from the benefit of 17 years experience and outline common problems with today’s respirators.