Efficacy of respiratory antimicrobial protection devices

Abstract

Individual protection of the respiratory tract is a key factor in preventing/stopping a potential epidemic/pandemic caused naturally or during biological agents application in war or terrorist activities. Improving the existing or introducing new appropriate personal protective equipment to the military environment would be invaluable. In order to acquire a confirmation of reliability and physiological suitability for use in the protection of military personnel in case of a declared epidemic/pandemic, the protection effectiveness and physiological suitability of three models of epidemiological masks were tested in accordance with BS EN 149: 2007 under the conditions of simulated biological air contamination. The test results and their statistical processing have shown that an epidemiological mask possesses high efficiency and physiological suitability as a protective device in the case of air contamination with aerosols of biological agents. It is recommended for use in peacetime together with the existing standard military masks.

Keywords

• protective mask
• personal protection
• epidemiological protection
• respiratory protection
• antimicrobial protection
• epidemic
• bioaerosol
• silver nanoparticles
• test results