Abstract

By studying the adsorption capacity and service life of respiratory protective cartridges, the IRSST has already shown that in the case of mixtures of pollutants, the use of a mask with saturated cartridges can be more dangerous than using no mask at all. The goal of this project was to produce a software program for calculating the service life of six filter cartridges for the organic vapours of regulated solvents in Québec. The development of this software is the result of cooperation between the IRSST, with its expertise in the characterization of the service life of chemical cartridges, and the Hydrogen Research Institute (HRI), through its expertise in activated charcoal. In addition to estimating the service life of cartridges exposed to one or more organic vapours, the computer-based tool Saturisk helps occupational hygienists determine a cartridge replacement sequence in the context of a respiratory protection program. Saturisk is available on the IRSST’s Web site.