The Importance of Masks on a Jobsite

Aidan McGurl

Blogpost

Introduction:

            Construction is one of the oldest and most necessary industries in the world.  It is often grueling work and can be one of the most dangerous jobs in the world today.  You can have any injury from cutting your finger to breaking your spine or possibly having a fatal accident while working construction.  Another hazard related to working construction is work related illness.  These illnesses can happen almost instantly or years and years later down the road.  For example, it is common for older construction workers to suffer hearing loss due to prolonged exposure to loud machinery and yelling, normally for the purpose of talking over this loud machinery.  Another possibility of a long-term illness later down the road is breathing and respiratory problems.  These breathing problems are most often a result of breathing in ultrafine particles that drift through the air on construction sites.  Workers often breathe in these ultrafine particles without even knowing it and this can lead to issues later in life.  A famous example of ultrafine particles causing risks for certain types of cancer and other illnesses down the road is the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.  The first responders at the world trade center inhaled a lot of fumes and ultrafine particles.  These people have suffered “substantial loss in pulmonary function and increasing risk for developing a number of cancers” (Gao, S.).  There is a rather simple cheap and quick way to prevent these ultrafine particles from being inhaled by those exposed.  Breathing masks, specifically N95 masks (certified by NIOSH, an agency that conducts research and studies to advance worker well-being) can be worn in construction and the medical profession can really help workers limit their exposure to potentially dangerous ultrafine particles.      

The study:

This study was conducted on pleated N95 grade respirators to see how they prevented ultrafine particles from entering the wearer’s airways.  These masks are also equipped with a charged metal plate that prevents iodized particles from entering the mask and therefore limiting the amount of particle inhaled by the wearer.  It studies how much of the ultrafine particles the mask would allow to enter an airway of the wearer.  It studied multiple different materials and the ultrafine particles they produce.  Masks were set up against a device that measured the amount of particles and pollutants that penetrated it.  It measured specific flow rates (flow rate being how much of a particle or particles is moving through the air per volume of air) that would resemble field like conditions and what the typical flow rate would be in a field like environment.  Four flow rates were tested, and they were as followed: fifteen liters per minute, thirty liters per minute, fifty-five liters per minute, and eighty-five liters per minute.  The four particles that were tested were sodium chloride (the most common form of table salt), wood, paper, and plastic.  

Findings     

            The findings were that N95 pleated masks greatly reduced the number of ultrafine particles entering the airways of the wearer.  The particle that had the highest penetration of the mask was plastic followed by paper wood and lastly, salt.  The sodium chloride was the control group and the other three particles were combusted particles that are found most common on the job site.  These particles had especially high penetration rates.  All of the penetration rates were less than five percent for all aerosol particle types across every flow rate tested.  This is consistent with NIOSH certification standards. 

(Gao, S.)

As shown in the table above, Plastic had the most penetration of the mask.  The next three were paper, wood, and sodium chloride.  However, no more than five percent of the total ultrafine particle amount inside of the aerosol penetrated the mask.  This shows a high coloration between both the flow rate and the type of particle and how much it penetrated the mask. 

Conclusion:

            These masks are very cheap.  They are extremely underused on jobsites as employers do not always require their workers to wear the breathing filters nor supply them in situations and on jobs that they should all be wearing them.  This sort of negligence could potentially lead to expensive lawsuits down the road for construction companies and could have devastating effects on both the workers and the companies.  The workers could suffer illness years later down the road from not wearing these masks and companies could be held liable for these work-related illnesses that can cost a lot of money in lawsuits.  There is a lot that can go wrong on a construction site and construction workers are without a doubt at a disadvantage and are more likely to suffer from a work-related illness than most other professions.  So why not make your workers who you depend on so much wear masks? And why not buy them the masks especially if it saves you a lot of money in the long run?     

References

Gao, S., Kim, J., Yermakov, M., Elmashae, Y., He, X., Reponen, T., & Grinshpun, S. A. (2015).

            Penetration of Combustion Aerosol Particles Through Filters of NIOSH-Certified

            Filtering Facepiece Respirators (FFRs). Journal of Occupational & Environmental

            Hygiene, 12(10), 678–685. https://doi org.lp.hscl.ufl. edu/10.1080/154596 24.2015.104 3