dust mask usage -Reply

[Michael S Ford <MFORD@pantex.com>]

Joe,

With all of the salt dust floating around in the drifts at your place, I
would think that a dust mask would be standard PPE!  :-)

I would challenge your IH person to go back and investigate how
NIOSH or MSHA come up with their protection factors.  At one time, I
was told that the PF's are determined in part by the amount of time
miners remove their masks during their work.

My last full face fit test showed a PF of between 1,000 and 10,000 --
don't recall exactly.  But it's much greater than the PF of 50 we're
legally allowed to use... again, because we wear respirators, we are
just like miners and therefore are prone to remove those masks in
the midst of our high specific activity work.  Go figure.

That the Russians report a PF of 200 is not surprising.  I know of one
rad vendor in the U.S. that sells nuke utilities surgeon's mask for rad
work (different source than what you have).  It's a high-tech model
that was developed to protect medical workers against AIDs.

Your low probability, high consequence event presents a unique
problem where you have to weigh what is deemed to be adequate
protection for Pu against chronic stresses on the heart and
pulmonary system through wearing full face respirators.  Also, to
make them a useful device, you would either need to assign
individuals respirators on their way down or store them in a very
inhospitable environment within close proximity to a given work
area.

Finally, it can be a pretty long haul to get to the elevator at WIPP.  If I
knew there would be a release and I didn't have a respirator, I'd grab
just about any cloth material and (folded a few times for effect) hold
it over my mouth and make an orderly exit (read:  haul!).  Heck, the
salt dust buildup on the outside of the dust mask might provide an
even higher degree of filtration!

My personal opinions,
v/r
Michael
mford@pantex.com
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