title: Particle Size-Selective Assessment of Protection of European Standard FFP Respirators and Surgical Masks against Particles-Tested with Human Subjects.
abstract: This study was conducted to investigate the protection of disposable filtering half-facepiece respirators of different grades against particles between 0.093 and 1.61  μm. A personal sampling system was used to particle size-selectively assess the protection of respirators. The results show that about 10.9% of FFP2 respirators and 28.2% of FFP3 respirators demonstrate assigned protection factors (APFs) below 10 and 20, which are the levels assigned for these respirators by the British Standard. On average, the protection factors of FFP respirators were 11.5 to 15.9 times greater than those of surgical masks. The minimum protection factors (PFs) were observed for particles between 0.263 and 0.384  μm. No significant difference in PF results was found among FFP respirator categories and particle size. A strong association between fit factors and protection factors was found. The study indicates that FFP respirators may not achieve the expected protection level and the APFs may need to be revised for these classes of respirators.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering and Science, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shu-An
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering and Science, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Dong-Chir
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering and Science, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan.
authors.forename: He-Yi
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering and Science, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chieh-Fu
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: Division of Occupational Hygiene, Institute of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health, Ministry of Labor, New Taipei City 22143, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chun-Wan
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Nanomedicine, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli 35053, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jen-Kun
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008397:Masks / Q000592:standards*; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000517:prevention & control; D010316:Particle Size; D035842:Research Subjects; D012134:Respiratory Protective Devices / Q000592:standards*