One of our employees who will need to use 1/2 face disposable masks has no sense of smell or taste. This obviously causes a problem with the face fit testing. We have tried him on 2 different reagents - which did not work. Have any of you had to address a situation like this in the past? Any ideas? Thanks Nick

Do the job properly. Qualitative face fit testing (with reagents) isn't worth the paper the certificate is printed on. Have a proper Qualitative face fit carried out, using a Porta-count machine. Rodger Ker

However if qualitative testing doesn't work on this individual - quantitative is the only way you can do it, which will mean either getting more equipment and training in its use or getting someone to come in to do it.

Kate - I fear you are right - I was just seeing if there had been any other ideas out there. John - The protection is very occasional (3-4 per year, 15-60 minute duration each) against dust during breakdown repair.

The following is taken from the HSE Occasional Circular OC 282/28 (from 2011) "Qualitative fit testing is a simple pass/fail test based on the wearer's SUBJECTIVE assessment of the leakage ---". (Capital letters are mine). It is based on an individuals own assessment of whether and when they can detect the bitter/sweet or odour. There is no way of verifying the result. This is the important point. As the original poster has pointed out someone with a poor/no sense of smell and undertakes a qualitative fit test this will produce a flawed result. Equally true, someone with a "sensitive" sense of smell will also produce a false result. Qualitative fit testing is considered to be "a cheap option". From my experience (carrying out 800 quantitative fit test in nine years) this is false economy. Quantitative fit testing is not that expensive, once you have found an organisation to do it and it is a verifiable (measured) result, not what someone "thinks" at a particular point in time. Rodger Ker