Disposable Respirators

Disposable Respirators are available for sale at Professional Safety Services (UK) Ltd. Contact our sales department on 01423 323 302.

A respirator is a device designed to protect the wearer from inhaling hazardous atmospheres, including fumes, vapours, gases and particulate matter such as dusts and airborne microorganisms. There are two main categories: the air-purifying respirator, in which respirable air is obtained by filtering a contaminated atmosphere, and the air-supplied respirator, in which an alternate supply of breathable air is delivered. Within each category, different techniques are employed to reduce or eliminate noxious airborne contaminants.

Air-purifying respirators range from relatively inexpensive single-use, disposable face masks sometimes referred to as a dust mask to more robust reusable models with replaceable cartridges often called a gas mask.

All respirators have some type of facepiece held to the wearer’s head with straps, a cloth harness, or some other method. Facepieces come in many different styles and sizes, to accommodate all types of face shapes. The differences in respirator design impact the respirator assigned protection factors, i.e. the resulting degree of protection from which kind of hazard.

Respirators can have half-face forms that cover the bottom half of the face including the nose and mouth, and full-face forms that cover the entire face. Half-face respirators are only effective in environments where the contaminants are not toxic to the eyes or facial area. For example, someone who is spray painting could wear a half-face respirator, but someone who works with chlorine gas would have to wear a full-face respirator.