Avoiding misuse of pandemic respiratory protection in companies

To address the acute shortage of respirators in Pandemic times Since the end of March 2020, Germany has had a rapid test that pragmatically checks the suitability of respirators for protection against Sars-CoV-2. In the meantime, dozens of product types have already been tested with positive results and millions of masks have thus been made marketable. 

"Actually, the CPA thus examined is exclusive to the provision of health care to the Protection before the virus," says Dr. Martin Liedtke, coordinator for personal protective equipment at the IFA. Nevertheless, CPA is now offered in many places in the trade, and those who have a need naturally take it. Liedtke: "This certainly includes companies that need filtering respiratory protection for a wide variety of activities, for example, at workplaces with high dust exposure or for handling cooling lubricants."

For the layman, CPA is often indistinguishable from otherwise standard, certified respiratory protection. But: CPA is not personal protective equipment according to the European test standard EN 149 for filtering half masks. It is not equivalent in terms of protection to respiratory protection certified to this test standard. CPA is intended to protect against the virus. "However, this does not automatically mean that the Respirators also offer protection against other airborne pollutants, for example oil-containing aerosols, some of which contain carcinogenic substances," says the IFA expert. 

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