The Respirator * The Medical and Dental People, and COVID-19
A Construction Site Safety company with Occupational First Aid III. Having been involved directly with the OH&S profession, I’ve Developed, and Coordinator safety Programs and Safety Manuals for various sized companies. All to a COR standard. In addition, as an Instructor in Personal Fall Protection Training Systems, with my own course I developed, Hundreds of workers are now trained and protected from falls.
Yet the largest achievement FreeBird Safety has accomplished began in Feb. 2020. The world was at the beginning of a global pandemic. As the planet started to lockdown due to COVID-19, essential workers still had to brave the Hazardous work environment putting themselves at great Risk. Not from the construction world, these workers were professionals from the Medical and Dental Communities. Doctors, Surgeons, Dentist, Nurses, Hygienists, their support staff, The BC Coroners Service, and a few Paramedics were the ones needing help. In order to ensure their own protection, they would have to donn full PPE. By definition this included Respirators. Not able to just buy it and wear one as per the WorkSafe BC Regulations, each person required a Respirator Fit Test.
Just about every other company who provided fit testing decided to suspend the service to safeguard their own workers and by extension their families. As an unmarried person, when the phone calls came asking for help the decision was made. I had to step up and put myself at great risk, entering into environments of extremely hazardous conditions. This was in total contradiction to every bit of safety training I’ve received in the past. The notion of “Protect Thy Self First” was out the window. Sometimes you got to do what ya got to do for the greater good. After all, these were the healers and protectors who were asking for help so they themselves could be protected. So, I began.
Starting out at 5 am one particular day was an eery feeling. My first appointment was in the downtown core of Vancouver. A group of doctors, dentists, nurses, and hygienists would be waiting for me to arrive. From Chilliwack to Vancouver, I bet I only saw 10 cars. The core of Vancouver was even creepier. At 7 am there wasn’t a soul on the streets. Very tower crane pointing in the same direction and not one person looking out the windows. If you’ve ever watched The Walking Dead, that’s exactly what the streets of Vancouver felt like. Entering into the building and looking over my shoulder one last time, standing 6 to 8 feet apart Safeguarding by way of social distancing, a group of 20 medical and dental professionals waited for an OH&S professional to instruct and fit test them on a piece of PPE they thought they would never need.
Conducted under the CSA Standards Z94.4-02, these workers underwent an hour-long in-depth instructional orientation prior to an actual face seal testing. Not having to use a respirator before, I had to teach these professionals how to properly care for their respirators. The task of breaking them down, cleaning and disinfecting, re-assemble, and proper storage was the bulk of the orientation. Ensuring a perfect fit would prove to be a challenge. Unlike construction, this community of workers was for the most part not as ample in body and facial structure as those in the trades
Most were females, just about a vast majority were slenderer than your average construction worker, and all didn’t have a weather conditioned face as most trades do. So, in the case of wearing a 3M 8210 N95 mask or others of the same structure, was going to feel very uncomfortable in the least. Training them not to play with the mask during a task was essential. Don’t break the seal, was the narrative steadily conveyed. Putting out fires sparked by social media and news anchors, in addition to politicians and others publicly commenting and giving statements of miss information was increasing the time each appointment. So, addressing these concerns in the body of the instruction was paramount.
NO, it is not a 2-year time period between fit tests. Fit tests must be conducted annually (1 year). Or one might need to refit test their respirator if the facial structure changes due to a significant fluctuation in weight or if one sustains facial damage resulting in a scar. If a person gets a new mask that’s exactly the same size, make and model as the old one then they do not need a re-test. But if any of those 3 changes with a new mask then they’ll also be required to re-test the fit to their face.
At one point it was said publicly in the medical/ dental community that due to the shortage of PPE respirator, instead of an N95 respirator an L3 (level 3) surgical mask could be worn. OMG, NO IT CAN NOT. An L3 and N95 do have the same filtration qualifications. However, an N95 cloth respirator is structured to protect the person wearing it from the outside environment. Whereas the L3 Surgical mask is structured to protect everybody else from the one who’s wearing that. Complete opposite ends of the spectrum.
One of the biggest fears facing particularly the younger females was the pictures floating around social media. A number of images of medical workers showing huge bruises and deep markings on their faces claiming it was the result of long periods of donning respirators. These young ladies were so afraid they were going to end up looking like that. Reassuring them this would never be the case took some doing. In 30 years of related experience involving the wearing of any PPE on a person’s face, never have I seen what these pictures were displaying. I said the only way that kind of damage could be caused by what they were wearing is if they had synched up the straps so tight the PPE would have been squashing down onto their faces. In no way should your protector ever hurt you. And that goes for all things in life.
I then went on to say, what you do want to see on your face is a red ring where your mask was sitting. That would be the pressure ring. If a person doesn’t have one on their face after 30 minutes of wearing a respirator, then it isn’t tight enough and they most likely have gaps around the edges. Obviously, the ones in these pictures were not correctly instructed. As well it is doubtful, they underwent a correct Respirator Fit Test with the proper instructions
As of Dec. 2020, over 2000 essential services professionals have had their protection insured, minimizing their risks a little more while at work. It was my complete honor to have been instructed with the lives and well being of so many who do nothing but protect and heal the population in our part of the world.
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