What you breathe matters

3M offers a wide selection of CE approved Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) to help protect against particulates, gases, vapours or a combination of these hazards. The width and depth of the 3M™ Respiratory Protection product range provides a wide selection of respiratory equipment across various applications, needs and budgets. Customers can choose the protection level, comfort, and maintenance requirements they need to work safely and comfortably.

3M disposable respirators have a legacy of quality with reputable filter media technologies that include electrostatic charge and nuisance odour protection. Options available include cup-shaped and flat fold respirators, valved or unvalved and are convenient and easy to use.

3M provides a full range of reusable respirators with half mask or full facepiece options to protect against particulates, gases and vapours. Options available for integrated or replaceable filters. Many models are fully maintainable and may be cleaned, stored and reused provided they are in good condition.

3M P&SA can offer integrated eye, face, head, neck and hearing protection in one system avoiding incompatibility issues between items of PPE. Our modular system allows customers to mix and match items as your environments or application changes.

The 3 Step Guide which takes customers on a journey of how to help ensure their respirator will be providing adequate protection.

Selecting the right respirator is just the first step – looking after it properly is essential to stay protected, respiratory filters do not last forever. Once a gas & vapour filter has been used to its full capacity, it will no longer offer any protection. An overused particulate filter will still protect you, but it will be hard to breathe through, leading to fatigue & reduced productivity.

As a very minimum, filters must be changed when:

• You can taste or smell the contaminant when wearing the respirator correctly (gas and vapour or combination filters)
• The filter becomes difficult to breathe through (particulate or combination filters)
• The expiry date of the filter has passed
• The filter has been out of its packaging for 6 months or more (gas and vapour or combination filters)
• The filter shows any signs of damage

The use of respiratory protection filters can be confusing and complicated and there are a number of common questions and issues that arise regularly. The questions and answers here try to briefly cover these.

A good fit means the respirator (also known as a face mask) will seal against your skin. A "tight fitting" respirator, such as a filtering facepiece respirator/disposable respirator, or a reusable respirator such as a half mask of full-face mask can only work when air passes through the filter. Air will take the path of least resistance, so if the seal to the face isn't there, the air will leak around, rather than go through the respirator, and therefore lessen the protection. One of the common issues with good respirator fit is facial air.