Correlations between workplace protection factors and fit factors for filtering facepieces in the welding workplace

Workplace protection factor (WPF) means a measure of the actual protection of respirator provided in the workplace when correctly worn. While fit factor (FF) represents a quantitative measure of the fit of a particular respirator to an individual and it is determined in the laboratory. To evaluate the relationship between WPF and FF is very important since FF may or may not be taken advantage of estimating WPF. Outside and inside Fe concentrations for three brand N95 filtering facepieces were collected on 14 workers/three respirator combinations in the welding workplace. The WPF measurements on the samples of the three respirator brands worn by 14 workers were observed to range from 2.2 to 132.9 with a geometric mean of 15.9 and a geometric standard deviation of 2.63. Respirator performances as measured by the WPF differed significantly among different respirator brands (p<0.05). In this study, correlations were found between the WPF measurements and the FF data for all samples of the three respirators (R2=0.38). The percentage of Fe particles having a smaller fraction than 1.1 microm diameter was observed as 71.6% of the total.