Document N2nDEyjY74BvgxmNE3vqB6dDw

1969 National Safety Congress All this costs money, real money, and un less we arc willing to make this investment completely and properly, we should not at tempt to protect at all, for only futility will result. You buy protection and human health -- not a respiratory device. recent revival of beards, sideburns, and other surplus hair on the face is definitely contra-indicated, since all Bureau of Mines tests show that a clean-shaven face is es sential for a proper respiratory face piece fit, and this is mentioned in the Z88.2 Code. Respiratory protection was not just in vented. Some devices on display in the Dresden, Germany, Fire Museum arc dated from 1875 to 1887. Even then, carbon adsorb ents were used. For ammonia, a sponge soaked with vinegar was incorporated in a face piece, the ancestor of the chemical respirator. Ask about various devices -- there is more background information than you might expect, and it is available if you insist on completeness. In June 1969, students at a major univer sity appeared in an academic procession wearing World War II surplus gas masks. This is a very serious matter; such masks arc being sold in surplus stores all over the country, and they arc essentially worthless. The same mistake occurred after World War I -- thousands were sold or given away, and loss of life resulted from their-misuse. If you come across such old equipment, destroy it at once before it kills. Not all mask face pieces fit everyone properly. This is poorly appreciated, since we have a tendency to accept something offered without question. About 95 per cent of the adult population can lie accommodated by the average full face piece if properly worn and adjusted. The various sizes and shaiics of faces arc well known; the Army and (lie Bureau of Mines arc well aware of the problem of human variations, but most people who buy and wear masks arc not. Another confusing situation develops when the medical and nursing professions use the word "respirator" to indicate a device for inducing or modifying breathing. Two of these were recently condemned as unsafe by the Food and Drug Administration and ordered removed or recalled from the mar ket. (Devices were manual bellows or bagtype blowers for introducing air into patients through a half-mask piece.) Respirators are of many types, and the face pieces may not fit properly unless care fully adjusted. It should be noted that the There arc also specialized respirators, such as the ones for radioactive materials and unusually toxic substances such as beryl lium. Even more care than usual is required if they arc to perform their intended pur pose. Several chemicals arc now definitely known as carcinogenic. A list of a few noted by the A.C.G.I.H. in the 1969 revision in clude: 2-acctylaminofluorcnc; 4-aminodiphcnyl; benzidine and its salts; dichlorobcnzidinc; 4-dimethylaminoazobcnzcnc; beta-naphthylamiuc; 4-uitrodiphcuyl; n-nitrodimethylaminc; bcta-propiolactonc; and p-toluidinc. These chemicals must be placed in a super-hazard classification, and leave no mar gin for error. Another unresolved and very practical problem is the mechanism for wearing of corrective lenses inside full face pieces by persons who arc virtually helpless without the lenses. All internally-mounted lenses arc subject to improper optical alignment when a mask is donned in haste; all externallymounted glasses, even with flat temples, per mit or encourage leakage. Only an air-sup plied hood accommodates glasses without sacrifice of safety due to leakage. There appears to have been a serious lack of imagination and initiative over the years in the development and research into re spiratory protection in this country. As I noted previously, gas masks, respirators, and even self-contained breathing apparatus (including the oxygen self-generating de vices) were in a considerably advanced state of development in Germany and England, prior to the beginning of World War I, when the United States first began to look at the problem. In some ways, the tremen dous potential for application of technology and engineering know-how seems to have largely escaped the respiratory protection field. Very few significant advances in re spiratory devices during the last fifty years have originated in the United States. (Hopcalitc, the mixture of metal oxides which, under favorably dry conditions, converts 8