Zhonghua lao dong wei sheng zhi ye bing za zhi = Zhonghua laodong weisheng zhiyebing zazhi = Chinese journal of industrial hygiene and occupational diseases
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Zhonghua Lao Dong Wei Sheng Zhi Ye Bing Za Zhi · Sep 2016
[Respiratory protection provided by N95 filtering facepiece respirators and disposable medicine masks against airborne bacteria in different working environments].
Objective: To determine the relative protection provided by N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFR) and disposable medicine masks (DMM) against airborne bacteria in different working environments. Methods: The field study was performed with 12 subjects wearing an N95 filtering facepiece respirator and a disposable medicine mask for 1h, respectively. Airborne microorganisms and bacteria samples from both the external (Ce) and the inner (Ci) surface of N95 FFR and DMM are collected. ⋯ The bacterial filtering proportion of N95 FFR is higher than DMM. These differences were significant in samples tested in summer (P<0.05) , but were not significant in samples tested in winter (P>0.05). Conclusion: Bacterial filtering efficiency of N95 respirator is superior to medicine mask, and this advantage become more obvious in high airborne bacterial concentration levels.