Ziqing Zhuang1,
Jinhua Guan2, Hongwei
Hsiao2, and Bruce Bradtmiller3
1 National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health, National Personal Protective Technology
Laboratory,
Tel: +1-412-386-4055 Fax: +1-412-386-6864 e-mail: ZAZ3@CDC.GOV
2 National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health,
Division of Safety Research,
3 Anthrotech,
This study evaluated the
ability of the current respirator fit test panels, developed by the Los Alamos
National Laboratory (LANL) in 1973, to represent the current
Comparisons were made on age
and racial distributions as well as key facial dimensions (face length, face
width and lip length) between the USAF and NIOSH surveys. Significant differences in key
facial dimensions were found among different age and
race/ethnic groups within the NIOSH survey in addition to the findings that age
and racial distributions of the USAF data were different from those of the
NIOSH data. The bivariate distribution
of face length and face width for full-face-piece applications and the face
length and lip length for half-face-piece applications were different between
the two surveys. Furthermore, the LANL full-face-piece panel rejected
15.3 percent of NIOSH survey subjects, which is an unacceptably high rejection
rate. It can be concluded that the LANL respirator fit test panels do not
represent the current