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The COVID-19 crisis has left hospitals in a difficult position. More personal protective equipment is desperately needed, and while some protection is better than nothing, healthcare providers who work closely with coronavirus patients need an N95 mask rather than a surgical mask. Civil-grade, low-quality, or counterfeit masks just don’t offer the same protection for patients or providers, and it’s important that providers know what kind of protective gear they’re getting. Luckily, there a …

If you and your team need to wear respirators on the job, it helps to have a means of comparing the relative protection between different respirators and filters. These ratings are designed to help protect you and your workers from different sets of airborne hazards. Sawdust and particles containing asbestos fibers are not the same. Neither should we use the same filter. If you use the wrong type of mask on the job, it could put you and your team at risk.  Learn more about N-, R-, …

For a lot of job sites, safety masks and respirators are an essential piece of PPE. The lungs are delicate, important organs that are hard to repair if they get damaged, and inhaling the wrong chemical can have devastating effects on other areas of the body as well. Protect yourself from invisible airborne particles by investing in a respirator or mask suited to your job. How Masks and Respirators Are Rated The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is a divisio …

Fit testing your company employees for respirators can be thought of the same way the Chinese symbol for crisis incorporates the characters for danger as well as opportunity. Sure there's a chance for things to get completely messed up. Done incorrectly, your fit testing might result in long lines of employees standing idle for hours which would be embarrassing for the fit test administrator and bad for the bottom line. If you are in charge of fit testing for a large organization like a hospi …

We recently had a Pureflo representative in to refresh our memories about these great products. Pureflo helmets are powered air purifying respirators (PAPR) and are great for companies that need to supply respirators, but don’t want to fit test each employee. They are also comfortable and may be easier to wear in tight spaces where the traditional PAPR units with belts and hoses can be cumbersome. Pureflo helmets, because they have a motor pulling air into the helmet area, create les …

"Why don't employers give their workers the best respiratory protection?" This is a question that we run into all the time. It basically comes down to two issues: fit testing and cost. Fit Testing Many employers believe that if they are not offering an approved mask to their workers, they don’t need to worry about fit testing. Unfortunately, this is a misconception. Since the only way to know for sure that a mask is doing its job is through fit testing, OSHA makes it a mandatory part …