Hey! I finally feel qualified to comment on something!

I'm an Industrial Hygienist and this is right up my alley...my biggest warning is to get the right mask/cartridges for the job. Particulate rated masks may NOT protect against solvent vapors and vice versa. Know what type of mask you are using and its limitations. All organic vapor filters can get overloaded with solvents and become useless. If this happens, you might not smell the solvent but you might still be breathing in a lot of it. My advice, dont hold onto solvent vapor filters for very long.


Quick rundown on respirators:
1)Dustmask/surgical mask...worthless at stopping vapors or dusts (like everyone else already said). Only really good for keeping people around you from getting sneezed on.

2) N95 rated respirator (looks like a dust mask), will filter out 95% of the dust IF FIT-TESTED, but you can expect it to still do a decent job. May also see N99 with filters out 99%+ but doesnt make much of a difference if it's not fitted. (expect about a 10 fold protection)

3) R95 & P95, same as above but is resistant or proof against oil mists

4) N95/P95 with organic vapor filtering charcoal embedded: Same as above but can filter out the solvents. Look for a description that says something like: "for use against nuisance vapors"

4)Half mask and full face respirators. These filter out a wide range of things depending on what cartridge is attached. Make sure you have the correct type. If it's JUST dust then a P100 or a HEPA cartridge is fine. Otherwise you may need to get something different. A good standard choice is a organic vapor/p100 multivapor cartridge. A fit-tested half mask can give a 25 fold protection and a full face a 50 fold protection.

5) Powered Air Purifying Respirator or Supplied air. These are fancy. Depending on the setup you can get between a 25 fold protection up to 10,000 fold protection. PM me if you want specifics.

Marklaken, PM me if you want suggestions on how to use your fresh air system. There's ways of lowering the air temp by 60 degrees.

If anyone has any specifics, PM me and I'll try to help. I'm used to reading alot of MSDS's and I might be able to suggest some things based off of what you are using.

Sorry about the brain dump... hope it helps someone.

-David