N042
Total Inward Leakage of Respirators
and Other Personal
Protective Equipment
William Newcomb
NIOSH,
National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory
Tel;
+1-412-386-4034 Fax;
+1-412-386-6716 e-mail; BYF6@CDC.GOV
ABSTRACT
Recent
trends in the field of personal protective equipment (PPE) testing have focused
on the need to effectively evaluate PPE systems performance for Total Inward
Leakage (TIL) under laboratory conditions.
While total inward leakage performed under laboratory conditions does
not reflect expected actual field level PPE performance, it does represent a criteria
for performance that influences PPE design.
The National Personal
Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL), TIL
Program will establish TIL laboratory test capability
for PPE. The program will address this
important performance requirement beginning with respirators. The initial respirator TIL project will cover
half-mask respirators including quartermasks and
filtering facepieces. This project spans
a period of approximately 12 months concluding with introduction of respirator
testing in April 2005.