Baxter, MN (PRWEB) February 28, 2011
First responders and clean-up crews at Ground Zero have suffered life long health ailments. Some have been diagnosed with severely diminished lung capacity. 35,980 people filed for worker's compensation from the World Trade Center incident.
Congress passed a $4.2 billion bill to pay for health care and compensation of the clean up crews, first responders, and respirator trained workers. A $657.5 million dollar lawsuit settlement was reached for 10,000 of the first responders and these same people.
As the federal lawsuits for 9/11 clean-up staff continues to grow, fingers continue to point, placing the blame on anyone who was calling the shots that day.
Many of the first responders wore respirators. The law suit comes to life because of the failure of respirators. The problem was due to the fact that the respirator's worn did not have an air tight seal to the emergency worker's faces.
The first responders at Ground Zero were trained and tested to use the respirators properly. Due to the fact that the airflow went around the respirator medium, the debris and dust reached the lungs of the workers instead of being filtered through the respirator (inward leakage). For more on inward leakage see the two citation sources below.
A recent study from the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene entitled, “Performance of an N95 Filtering Face-piece Particulate Respirator and a Surgical Mask During Human Breathing: Two Pathways for Particle Penetration”
The study shows out of 75 participants wearing respirators and surgical masks, the leakage through the contact surface of the respirator to the face was an average of 5% with N95 respirators (best fit, fit test failures). Surgical masks shows an average rate of 40% leakage (best fit, fit test) and leakage appears no matter what size the particle is.
The study shows the compromises existing through a faulty facial seal, not the face-mask or respirator medium. A medical grade adhesive seal; Breathe Safely™ , already exists, this would have made the extent of lung damage substantially less. This technology seals a respirator to the users face, it uses a medical grade adhesive seal so that respirators and masks do not leak inward or outward at the face. After comprehensive testing of Breathe Safely™ seals, test participants felt 100% safer and 70% more comfortable wearing the seal.
Penetration of fatal pollutants and viruses take place around the edge of the respirator, mask, or personal protection equipment (PPE). This is tested and published by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention and a 2011 publication entitled, “Preventing Transmission of Pandemic Influenza and Other Viral Respiratory Disease” issued by the Institute of Medicine.
The U.S. Government (tax payers) will continue paying law suits and medicare as the first responders, emergency workers, and daily respirator users health conditions progressively decline with age, as they did with asbestos.
During the next viral pandemic (like H1N1, but worse) is the same fate to doctors, nurses, hospital workers and emergency workers bound to happen, says the World Health Organization. As stated in the publication, “Preventing Transmission of Pandemic Influenza and Other Viral Respiratory Diseases: Personal Protective Equipment for Healthcare Workers Update 2010,” Page: 5-6; the respirator face-seal leakage is much greater than the filtration material on the respirator. Page: 79; 20 volunteers tested with five different face masks, all failed fit testing. Page 80; 6,160 trained health workers tested and 17% failed fit testing. With the Breathe Safely seal the full capabilities of the respirator will finally be realized.
Grinshpun, Sergey A., Haruta, Hiroki, Eninger, Robert M., Reponen, Tiina, McKay, Roy T. and Lee, ShuAn(2009) 'Performance of an N95 Filtering Facepiece Particulate Respirator and a Surgical Mask During Human Breathing: Two Pathways for Particle Penetration',Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene,6:10,593 — 60
IOM (Institute of Medicine). 2011. 'Preventing Transmission of Pandemic Influenza and other Viral Respiratory Diseases: Personal Protective Equipment for Healthcare Personnel'—update 2010. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.