What is the Assigned Protection Factor (APF) for a Powered Air-Purifying Respirator (PAPR)? Most people will claim 1,000 and with that, we are already off the rails!!! SAFTENG members can refer back to my 2015 article (What is the ACTUAL assigned protection factor for Powered Air Purifying Respirators (PAPR) WITHOUT a tight-fitting facepiece?) where I explain how we can get to an APF of 1,000, but we should ALWAYS start at an APF of 25! Yes, 25 – half the APF of a Full-FACE APR. So as to set some boundaries, a loose-fitting PAPR will start with a LOWER APF than a non-powered Full-FACE tight-fitting APR. Case in point, here is a manufacturer’s prescribed APF for their brand/model/style PAPR…
PAPR’s, APF’s and big assumptions = bad decisions!
