Respirator Effects in Impaired Workers

在职业安全和健康领域，呼吸器(呼吸个人防护装备，RPPE) 在工业上得到了广泛的应用。最近，生物恐怖主义和/或流行病以及 对风险的认知增加了更广泛使用呼吸器的可能性。患有轻度疾病的人 呼吸损害或因以下原因而发展为轻度呼吸损害的个人 恐怖主义和/或流行病可能需要使用呼吸器，而不是被排除在许多工作之外。 该项目将把先前关于呼吸器对相对健康的人的影响的研究扩展到患有 轻微的呼吸损伤。将研究四组受试者：正常、慢性阻塞性肺疾病、慢性鼻炎、 哮喘。每个受试者都将在受控运动实验室中使用呼吸器代用品进行研究。 (吸气阻力、呼气阻力、死腔)。此外，每一个都将在模拟期间进行研究 使用N95和全面罩呼吸器进行久坐或中等强度的“真实世界”工作。 测量将包括生理参数、主观评级和对适当利用的估计。完毕 三年内，将有大约140名受试者参加。该项目应该描述响应的特征 这些个体组的模式以及描述呼吸器的不同组件的影响 大把的。该信息可用于制定政策(例如，避难所就位与呼吸器的使用)， 设计更好的呼吸器，以及工人选择/咨询。

In the field of Occupational Safety and Health, respirators (respiratory personal protective equipment, RPPE) have been widely used in industry. More recently, the possibility of bioterrorism and/or epidemics as well as the perception of risk increase the likelihood of much more widespread respirator use. Persons with mild respiratory impairments or individuals who develop mild respiratory impairments as a consequence of terrorism and/or epidemic may be required to use respirators rather than being excluded from manyjobs. This project will extend prior research about respirator effects in relatively healthy individuals to personswith mild respiratory impairments. Four groups of subjects will be studied: normal, COPD, chronic rhinitis, asthma. Each subject will be studied in a controlled exercise laboratory using respirator surrogateloads (inspiratory resistance, expiratory resistance, dead space). In addition, each will be studied during simulated "real world" work of a sedentary or moderate exertion level using an N95 and a full face mask respirator. Measures will include physiologic parameters, subjective ratings, and estimates of proper utilization. Over three years, approximately 140 subjects will participate. The project should characterize the response patterns of these individual groups as well as delineate the effects of different components of respirator loads. The information may be useful for policy establishment (e.g., shelter in place vs. respirator use), designing better respirators, and worker selection/counseling.