Cargando…

Impact of Wearing on Filtration Performance of Electrostatic Filter Face Masks

Certified disposable respirators afford important protection from hazardous aerosols but lose performance as they are worn. This study examines the effect of wear time on filtration efficiency. Disposable respirators were worn by CSIRO staff over a period of 4 weeks in early 2020. Participants wore...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Pierlot, Anthony P., Alexander, David L. J., Schütz, Jürg A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9100139/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35564426
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095032
_version_ 1784706779926495232
author Pierlot, Anthony P.
Alexander, David L. J.
Schütz, Jürg A.
author_facet Pierlot, Anthony P.
Alexander, David L. J.
Schütz, Jürg A.
author_sort Pierlot, Anthony P.
collection PubMed
description Certified disposable respirators afford important protection from hazardous aerosols but lose performance as they are worn. This study examines the effect of wear time on filtration efficiency. Disposable respirators were worn by CSIRO staff over a period of 4 weeks in early 2020. Participants wore the respirator masks for given times up to eight hours whilst working in laboratory/office environments. At that time COVID-19 precautions required staff to wear surgical (or other) masks and increase use of hand sanitizer from dispenser stations. Results obtained from a test group of ten individuals without health preconditions show an increasing number of masks failing with wear time, while the remainder continue to perform nearly unaffected for up to 8 h. Some masks were found to retain filtration performance better than others, possibly due to the type of challenge they were subjected to by the wearer. However, the rate and extent of decay are expected to differ between environments since there are many contributing factors and properties of the aerosol challenge cannot be controlled in a live trial. Penetration and variability increased during wear; the longer the wear time, the more deleterious to particle removal, particularly after approximately 2 h of wear. This behavior is captured in a descriptive statistical model based on results from a trial with this test group. The effectiveness of the masks in preventing the penetration of KCl particles was determined before and after wearing, with the analysis focusing on the most penetrating particles in a size range of 0.3–0.5 µm diameter where respirator masks are most vulnerable. The basic elements of the study, including the approach to filter testing and sample sanitization, are broadly applicable. Conclusions also have applicability to typical commercially available single-use respirator masks manufactured from melt blown polypropylene as they are reliant on the same physical principles for particle capture and electrostatic enhancement was comparable for the particle size range used for detection.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9100139
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-91001392022-05-14 Impact of Wearing on Filtration Performance of Electrostatic Filter Face Masks Pierlot, Anthony P. Alexander, David L. J. Schütz, Jürg A. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Certified disposable respirators afford important protection from hazardous aerosols but lose performance as they are worn. This study examines the effect of wear time on filtration efficiency. Disposable respirators were worn by CSIRO staff over a period of 4 weeks in early 2020. Participants wore the respirator masks for given times up to eight hours whilst working in laboratory/office environments. At that time COVID-19 precautions required staff to wear surgical (or other) masks and increase use of hand sanitizer from dispenser stations. Results obtained from a test group of ten individuals without health preconditions show an increasing number of masks failing with wear time, while the remainder continue to perform nearly unaffected for up to 8 h. Some masks were found to retain filtration performance better than others, possibly due to the type of challenge they were subjected to by the wearer. However, the rate and extent of decay are expected to differ between environments since there are many contributing factors and properties of the aerosol challenge cannot be controlled in a live trial. Penetration and variability increased during wear; the longer the wear time, the more deleterious to particle removal, particularly after approximately 2 h of wear. This behavior is captured in a descriptive statistical model based on results from a trial with this test group. The effectiveness of the masks in preventing the penetration of KCl particles was determined before and after wearing, with the analysis focusing on the most penetrating particles in a size range of 0.3–0.5 µm diameter where respirator masks are most vulnerable. The basic elements of the study, including the approach to filter testing and sample sanitization, are broadly applicable. Conclusions also have applicability to typical commercially available single-use respirator masks manufactured from melt blown polypropylene as they are reliant on the same physical principles for particle capture and electrostatic enhancement was comparable for the particle size range used for detection. MDPI 2022-04-21 /pmc/articles/PMC9100139/ /pubmed/35564426 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095032 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Pierlot, Anthony P.
Alexander, David L. J.
Schütz, Jürg A.
Impact of Wearing on Filtration Performance of Electrostatic Filter Face Masks
title Impact of Wearing on Filtration Performance of Electrostatic Filter Face Masks
title_full Impact of Wearing on Filtration Performance of Electrostatic Filter Face Masks
title_fullStr Impact of Wearing on Filtration Performance of Electrostatic Filter Face Masks
title_full_unstemmed Impact of Wearing on Filtration Performance of Electrostatic Filter Face Masks
title_short Impact of Wearing on Filtration Performance of Electrostatic Filter Face Masks
title_sort impact of wearing on filtration performance of electrostatic filter face masks
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9100139/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35564426
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095032
work_keys_str_mv AT pierlotanthonyp impactofwearingonfiltrationperformanceofelectrostaticfilterfacemasks
AT alexanderdavidlj impactofwearingonfiltrationperformanceofelectrostaticfilterfacemasks
AT schutzjurga impactofwearingonfiltrationperformanceofelectrostaticfilterfacemasks