dust filtration N95 vs. Trend Airshield Pro

[teovaldi]

The ni-cads in my 3-M have given out:mad:, so I am thinking about the Trend Airshield Pro. Their filters are not N95 certified. I always thought that was the standard to look for regarding dust filtration. I emailed Trend and was told that their filter was 98% effective for .3 micron particles. I can't find the N95 standard to compare. Does anyone in the group know whether the Trend filter is as good as or, hopefully, better than, N95? Or have a link to the N95 NIOSH spec?
Thanks,
Tom

 

[KurtB]

Niosh N95

While doing a little digging to answer your question, I found this: http://www.ph.ucla.edu/EPI/bioter/n95masks.html. Looked interesting, but not sure if it will help.

 

[Mark Warden]

From what I understand the 95 in the n95 is 95% filtration however I think that is down to .1 micron.Standards like that are more for disease control than dust control.IMO (I'm not a doctor) 98% of ,03micron is plenty for woodworking use. You can find more info on the CDC website.

 

[n7bsn]

Tom
Trend has never tried to get it certified to any US standard. It does, however, meet the UK/EU standards for commercial woodworking.

Personally I am happy with my Trend, but I have to ask, the 3M is considered the Gold Standard, why not just replace the batteries? I'm guessing it would take some surgery, but still....

 

[Bill Boehme]

From what I understand the 95 in the n95 is 95% filtration however I think that is down to .1 micron.Standards like that are more for disease control than dust control.IMO (I'm not a doctor) 98% of ,03micron is plenty for woodworking use. You can find more info on the CDC website.

Mark, it is the really small sub micron particles that are the serious health hazard because the body's effectiveness for capturing particles of that size is much less than it is for larger particles. Once these sub micron particles get into the lungs, they are also very difficult for the body to remove. The situation is worse of the wood is old a d dry, especially if there is any spalting because there is the possibility of developing ODTS.

BTW, there is a difference in the filters which are part of a passive system in which are designated as negative pressure filters (hence, the rating "N", as in N95 or N100) and filters which are designed to be used in a positive pressure supplied air system (which have a "P" rating such as P95 or P100). Systems such as the 3M Airstream and 3M BreatheEasy use P100 filters. P100 and N100 filters are also known as HEPA filters.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Here is a brief summary from the 3M web site of the Title 42 CFR 84 (NIOSH) respiratory protection standard.

If anyone is really interested in wading through the agonizing details of a requirements specification, here is the text of the Title 42 CFR 84 document. The test methods and performance criteria are buried in the last third of the document. As an engineer, I am accustomed to reading this kind of stuff, but I didn't get much out of reading this one.

An important bit of information that I gleaned from this material is the "rated" efficiency, such as 95 or 100, does not tell you what percentage of total particulates are captured. The number does give a calculated percentage for a specified particle size. In the real world, all of the particles sizes will be in the range of sub micron up to large enough that a chain hoist is needed to pick the "particle" up. The big ones are also harmful to your health.