Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2020

DOI

10.2486/indhealth.2109-0019

Publication Title

Industrial Health

Volume

58

Issue

1

Pages

46-53

Abstract

Fit testing procedure is required for filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) to ascertain an acceptable fit between the skin and facepiece sealing surface. The present study seeks to compare the efficacy of Aloe vera (A. vera) and commercial BitrexTM as challenge agents of qualitative fit testing of particulate respirators. An herbal solution consisting of A. vera at seven different concentrations was developed. Threshold Screening Tests (TSTs) of A. vera solutions were compared to BitrexTM. To do so, solutions were administered randomly on a total of 62 participants. A placebo was also tested to ensure the taste response being valid. Statistical analysis was performed using R 3.2.5.0 software. There were no statistically significant differences between the A. vera (41.7, 58.3, 75, and 91.7 mg/ml) and BitrexTM threshold tests. Therefore, the minimum concentration of A. vera to develop the threshold solution was considered to be 41.7 mg/ml. When commercial products are expensive and unavailable, a cost-effective technique would be to replace A. vera solution with a commercial product as a challenge agent of qualitative fit testing of respirators.

Comments

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd) License. (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Original Publication Citation

Fakherpour, A., Jahangiri, M., Yousefinejad, S., Seif, M., & Banaee, S. (2020). Assessment of aloe vera for qualitative fit testing of particulate respirators: A logistic regression approach. Industrial Health, 58(1), 46-53. doi:10.2486/indhealth.2109-0019

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