ISRP 2002 abstract
| Presenter/author | Title | Abstract |
|
Harris, Stuart J. Factair Ltd, Ipswich, UK |
Breathing Air System Design for the 21st Century |
Breathing airline supplied systems are the
Cinderella of respiratory protection programmes. Manufacturers see high
air consumption rates as a real stumbling block while users fail to
grasp the implications for available time for escape to a place of
safety. Even during organised and well planned campaigns to carry out
work, those responsible very often have almost no information regarding
range, type or concentration of contaminants, and no real idea how long
it takes to safely evacuate a workplace. Little or no consideration is
given to the changes in contamination levels that appear in the
breathing zone of workers derived from the work they are doing.
The acute effects of failings in system design cannot be easily separated from any other failure of management control and there is no outcry and no obvious body count, these failings remain largely unheeded. However the chronic effects of poorly designed respiratory protection programmes should not be underestimated. System design has moved forward, pushed from behind by those who are trying to make it safer, and from in front by those who want it cheap and cheerful. The future is a world of quieter, automated but simple devices, and systems that communicate system condition without human intervention. This paper looks at the failings and the future.
|