Posted By Graeme Hughson Occupational hygienists and safety professionals should be concerned about the filtration capacity of organic vapour filtering respirators. I believe that the usual advice to the wearer is to replace the filter if chemical odours can be detected when in use. However, I'm sure most would agree that it would be useful for people to have a better prediction of filter lifespan. IOM is currently investigating how organic filter cartridges for full and half mask RPE are used in the workplace. One of the important issues we are investigating is the effective filter life in real-life workplace situations. This would include processes where workers are required to use activated carbon filter cartridges in order to control their exposures to organic vapours. If you are connected with a company which uses organic filter cartridges to control workplace exposure, this is your chance to get some free advice and a quantitative assessment of the organic vapour RPE programme. IOM will supply the filter cartridges, which will be the exact type used by each company taking part in the study. If anyone is interested in participating, please reply to me off-list. Further details about IOM and the work we do can be obtained from our website at www.iom-world.org Graeme Hughson graeme.hughson@iomhq.org.uk

Posted By Graeme Hughson Just to clarify things, this is NOT a commercial exercise. This work is an HSE funded research project carried out by IOM, which is an independent research centre (with charity status in Scotland). We are looking for companies to contribute by participation in the study. As I indicated, participants will benefit from the study by gaining some useful advice and obtaining a quantatative measure of filter capacities from a range of samples. I am not looking to sell anyone anything. Please get in touch if you can help.