![]() ![]() 88 or Authors’ note: Reader feedback is welcome. He can be reached at (651) 430-0815 or MCKAY, PHD, is director of Occupational Pulmonary Services at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. LARRY JANSSEN, CIH, is an industrial hygiene consultant in Stillwater, Minn. It should not be used without the proper modifier as described in these definitions. While the original term “protection factor” has served our profession well, it lacks the precision to describe all scenarios in which respirator performance is discussed. The same limitation should be applied to every term: each is discrete, and no measurement has been shown to accurately predict another. As noted earlier, it has long been known that fit measurements (now called quantitative fit factor, QNFF) differ from protection measurements (now designated workplace protection factor, WPF). These terms are necessary to properly depict where, how, and under what circumstances respirator performance is measured or described. Researchers are strongly urged to properly use these terms in their publications. In general, the performance terms have no legal standing, but several of them have been incorporated into OSHA regulations, NIOSH publications, and ANSI standards. They are appropriate regardless of the instruments or analytical methods used for the measurements, and are unaffected by statistical analysis or other mathematical treatment. The terms are applicable to all respirator types. The revised and newly added terms are intended to expand and clarify the meaning of measurements made under a wider variety of conditions. Three new terms were added to define laboratory performance measurements conducted with respirators mounted to manikins. The latest revision was undertaken to clarify and refine minor issues, account for new measurement technology, and add terms for research that did not fit neatly into any of the previous terms. The committee later revised the terms for clarity and republished them in 2002. The terms in use today-quantitative fit factor, workplace protection factor, assigned protection factor, and so on-were formalized by the Respiratory Protection Committee and published in the AIHA Journal in 1985. Thoughtful discussions began in the AIHA Journal and eventually became a project for AIHA’s Respiratory Protection Committee. Furthermore, researchers sometimes controlled one or more of the factors that affected respirator performance to better understand and characterize the influence of each factor. For example, Co and Ci measurements made in workplaces using integrated sampling methods were found to differ from measurements made on the same type of respirator in laboratories with quantitative fit-testing systems, as explained in a 1986 paper published in the Journal of the International Society for Respiratory Protection. In the early 1980s it was recognized that respirator performance is a function of where and how the measurements are made. ![]()
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