Respirators are used when pollutant concentrations in the air endanger the life or health of workers. Equipped with a filter in the form of a casing or a cartridge, these instruments have a limited service life that depends on several factors, such as the characteristics of the contaminants, their concentration, the ambient air humidity, as well as the characteristics of the carbon in the cartridges. For several years, the IRSST has been conducting studies on the filtration capacity of respiratory cartridges and their service life when they are exposed to a single pollutant or to mixtures. In a joint project with the Institut de recherche sur l’hydrogène (IRH, Hydrogen research institute), the researchers developed a tool for calculating the service life of cartridges.
The aim of this project is to optimize and enhance the tool with information from a larger number of cartridges and contaminants. Called Saturisk, this tool is used to establish the cartridge and casing replacement sequence and thus allow better management of respiratory protective equipment. Saturisk is available on the IRSST’s web site.