TIL: Gasmasks

[KingKire]

So, as a favor to my parents, i offered to help clean out their shower of some fun ol' mold that had tooken a little bit of a hold inside their shower.

Im a fan of double-dipping in life, and since its usually a good idea to wear a good mask when removing mold from stuff to avoid feeling flu-ish, and its a *great* idea to wear a good mask when sanding/painting/ removing ratpoop (which i do a moderate amount of, and planning to do much more of), i figured that giving a helping hand is a great way to rock some birds nice and good.

Now, im a "autodidact" type of person ( words for everything, what a wonderful day), and even though i havent received too much training in the art of the mask, i figured it'd be a fun weekend learning more about such a basic, yet kind of (in)famous, sort of item that most normal people dont really look that much into. I also figure that since this is a mil-sim sort of server, it might be fun random fluff that people might want to hear about.

So, some of the basics that i picked up:

There are alot of different masks on the market, and their are alot of filters on the market.
-Disposable half-masks
-Reusable half masks ( snap a filter on that sucker and look like your breaking bad)
-Full face masks (Its a half mask, but now you dont have to wear goggles!)
-Hood masks (i.e, your standard bio suit scientist looking masks), also called PAPR(Powered, Air Purifying, Respirator)

The proper term (i guess) for most gasmasks are "respirators" since they technically are not "gasproof".
-The only way you have a "gasmask" is if your breathing air from a tank, otherwise, its just filtering what your getting.


Wearing a mask is not a magic band-aid to toxic air
-A mask is only as good as its filter, and there are alot of different things that need different filters.
-Also, if your not getting enough oxygen (i.e, all the air is displaced by something that isnt 20% oxygen) your gonna have a bad time.



If there's any air coming in that *isnt* being filtered, then you might as well not be wearing a mask in the first place.
-I.e, make sure you got a good seal, no beards, no weird faces.

If you *do* have a beard (or glasses, or you like a comfy amount of headspace) you can use PAPR hood
-It works like the old soviet tanks with their over-pressure button up systems. If you force enough good air into your face, bad air cant force itself through.


Filters are sorted in particle protection, and then an extra layer of *special* protection on top of that.
- Particle protection comes in 95/97/100, with it being the number being how many particles are filtered out of the air, percentage wise.

The letter before the number (N/R/P) stands for how durable the mask is when dealing with "oily" air.
- N stands for "do *not* expose this to oil"
- R stands for *R*esistant against oil, or " your good for a little bit"
- P stands for *P*rotected against oil


Goggles come in 3 types, vented, indirect vents, and non-vented /gas goggles.
-Vented means less fogging
-Indirect vents means you can enjoy less fogging without worrying about spilling nasty liquids into your goggles.
-Non-vented means nothings getting through chief, air or liquid stuff.

Glasses kinda ruin the aspect of non-vented goggles, with the frames creating a "ze goggles, zey do nothing" sort of situation.
-Im suprised that i never thought about that before i actually started looking into gasmasks, but then it clicked into place with a "oh...yah, that makes sense." I wonder how many people might have ran into that situation accidentally. (Rioters and pepper spray, haha)

Contacts are bad.
-This one i knew right from the start. Contacts are already hard to take off if your eyes are irritated. Trying to take off contacts that accidentally got splashed with bleach must be insane.

Gasmasks and goggles have Corrective inserts.
-Seems im in luck if i ever decided that i needed to see where im going while masked up! The draw back is that glasses inserts are pretty darn expensive. Essentially your paying for another pair of glasses that you'll never use unless your wearing that specific mask. Sad day (but if your working, those bad boys are covered/paid for under law)


If you wanted to, you can use a gas mask underwater like a scuba mask, if you got a forced air tube.
-Idk, i just thought it was pretty interesting. Its to be expected (its airtight of course) but, i think its still a pretty fun fact


Old Soviet-era filters used asbestos (man, what cant that shit solve) inside their cans.
-Definitely worth thinking about... Die now, die later...who knows...


Anywho, after popping around, i eventually settled on a 3M 7500 mask for 24$. They are not kidding when they say that it is comfy, the silicone is pretty friken great, has an awesome quick head release, and is a pretty rad breather. For some fun comparisons, i also bought a Chinese generic 7500 ripoff mask for 7$ just to see how it compares to the brand name. Its still got a few weeks before it arrives, so that should be interesting.
Maybe its true that the brand name respirators are just overpriced due to "safety" haha.

(serious thoughts though: i doubt that the generic is going to be as durable as the brand name, cant put a price on prevention)



If anyone else has some fun stuff to add, feel free to chime in.

[KingKire]

Ahh, and some resources in case anyone wants to know more:

-Goggles by Uvm
-WeaponsAndStuff channel (Pretty much a dude who reviews a ton of gasmaks, which was pretty entertaining
-A dude building a scuba gasmask for fun.

[NoahKirchner]

this was a neat read, helps take the monotony out of making varrock teletabs until 55 magic

[z a n e b o t]

You learn something new everyday

[Ms.Degrasse]

Lovely topic. ^^

I had to use gas masks and similar gear in many unsafe environments I visited or worked in.

Never felt uncomfortable when using one of those.