Rank: Super forum user 
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A client tells me that he has been told that he has to have face fit testing done and that this includes his employees having moulds taken of their faces as part of the process. I have not come accross this; have you?
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Rank: Super forum user
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Never heard of this. When we do face fit testing we either use the qualitative method –for disposable face masks and half face masks or the quantitative method for full face masks. Both methods are the ones approved by the HSE and our staff work with some nasty reagents.
Do they do anything special?
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Rank: Super forum user
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Nothing special, main hazard is RCS.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Rank: Super forum user
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Respirable Crystaline Silica (From stone dust)
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Rank: Super forum user
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Not something we work with-chemicals and biological agents. But we have to use military standard respirators for some of this work ( I could tell you but I’d have to kill you) and these are face fit tested using the normal quantitative methods mentioned. Taking a mould from someone’s face only makes sense if the mould is used to make a specific face plate for that individual, which I suspect would cost a fortune.
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Rank: Guest
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Face Fit Testing is by quantitative or qualitative methods and determines whether or not the SELECTED respirator provides a seal to the face.
It involves the employee wearing his respirator and going through a series of exercises designed to assess the respirators ability to retain seal to face through the exercises. Exercises being normal breathing, deep breathing, moving your head from side to side and up and down, bending over etc.
You can use quantitative or qualitative for either half face or full face respirators. Quantitative as the name suggests gives you actual data of level of seal quality. Qualitative methods assess whether or not there is breakthrough of a known substance (usually bitrex or saccharin).
It is required that a fit test is conducted for each type of respirator that an individual is issued with - different models, different sizes etc all require individual fit tests to ensure that each respirator type retains its seal during the tests.
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Rank: Super forum user
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The answer to the question as to whether face fit testing is necessary is almost certainly ‘yes’ in the circumstances you describe. It is a requirement in COSHH, see the ACOP to regulation 7, paragraph 150:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l5.pdf
As others have said, face fit testing is a simple process, taking a mould of a face does not feature in our quantitative face fit tests.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Jane Blunt wrote:The answer to the question as to whether face fit testing is necessary is almost certainly ‘yes’ in the circumstances you describe. It is a requirement in COSHH, see the ACOP to regulation 7, paragraph 150:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l5.pdf
As others have said, face fit testing is a simple process, taking a mould of a face does not feature in our quantitative face fit tests.
Par 150 refers to Fit testing of respiratory protective equipment facepieces. I cant find a link to this - any suggestions?
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Are you sure the mold was for the fit test and not for personal hearing protection. I had personal hearing protection where a mold was taken of the ear canal, in order for the epoxy plug to be made.
Chris
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Rank: Forum user
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Further guidance can be found in HSG53
Steve........
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