# Respirator comfort...



## Last Craftsman (Dec 5, 2008)

Everybody wear your respirators.

I recently painted a bunch of trim with some acrylic paint I don't normally use, and I didn't get dizzy right away, but after two days of brushing, I definitely had lost focus, clarity, and short term memory.

Ethylene Glycol is sneaky and is in a lot of acrylics.

Sometimes it almost feels like acrylic is worse than other paints because things like lacquer and oil let you know right away that your nervous system is getting thrashed, so you protect yourself.

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I wanted to share a trick I figured out about increasing respirator comfort.

The problem with the way respirators are designed, is they pull down a lot on the nose, and press hard against the face.

Nobody wants to wear one for multiple days in a row.

The secret to wearing a respirator more comfortably is to change the lower strap from going around your neck to resting on the crown at the back/top of your skull. It usually works good to put that strap UNDER the strap that is designed to go on your head, it keeps it from slipping.

What this does is pulls the respirator UP instead of down and back.

You will have to lengthen the lower straps as far as they can go to achieve this.

You may also have to go get new strap material from a fabric store if the lower straps are not long enough.

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Visualize this:

Take your respirator without straps and simply hold it to your face using your hand.

Hold it there with just enough pressure to where it seals and when you breath and the valves open and close and no air gets in where the respirator joins your face.

I don't know WHY respirator manufacturers can't figure this out, but you only need enough pressure against the face to KEEP THE FUMES OUT. You don't need FOUR TIMES more than that.

They should make the CEO's who sit around the conference table at 3M wear a respirator for 3 8 hour days and see how *they* like it. 

:yes:

Any way, the goal is to get the respirator to sit on the face as if you were holding it there with your hand.

By moving the support point of the lower strap from the back of your neck to the point at the back/top of your skull where the pieces of your skull join, it pulls the respirator up instead of down.

This allows you to loosen the straps CONSIDERABLY, so they dont pull as tightly against the face.

Start without the lower straps, and only have the top strap on your head, then loosen the tops straps some until the respirator sort of hinges at the bridge of your nose when you lean over. When you lean over the respirator should hinge at the bridge of your nose and the bottom of the mask fall away from your face.

Stand up straight, and press the lower part of the respirator onto your face with your hand until it is sealed. Then loosen the lower straps so that when you connect them at the back/top of your head, it pulls the lower part of the respirator against your face to the same pressure it was when you were holding it.

You need to wrap the lower straps UNDERNEATH the cartridges before directing them up, this also helps lift some weight.

Sometimes my respirator will sit like this so loose that when I lean over, the bottom of the respirator falls away from my face a little.

Depending on what I am doing I dont worry about it. I don't breath in during that moment. 95% the time, your face is perpendicular to the ground. If I need to paint something like some banisters I am leaning over, or some baseboard etc, then I will tighten the strap because in those situations the respirator is ALWAYS falling away from the face instead of occasionally.

You will find this is MUCH more comfortable.

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Also I have had not thought of this back when I used the kind of respirator that uses the round cartridges. I don't know if the strap configuration works with those.

If you still have one of those, I recommend you ditch it for the kind that use the triangular cartridges. The whole assembly is much lighter, and the triangular cartridges distribute some of the weight so they don't pull down as much on the face. ( even when used with the strap on the neck )

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I recommend this mostly for tasks that a lot of painters don't use a respirator for any way. For years I just wore a dust cup when spraying and backrolling walls. Not any more. I Also wear a respirator when *brushing*. Just because there are no particulates in the air, doesn't mean the paint isn't kicking and there aren't solvents everywhere.

But if I have a few hours of something toxic to spray, I usually tighten the mask down a little for that just because it seems like the density of the fumes in the air makes it around the loose mask a little.

Also if smell is getting in, don't assume it needs to be tighter on the face, check the gap at the bridge of the nose.

Sometimes that is where smell is coming in, and you can simply put a piece of foam or something in there instead of cranking down the entire mask simply to address the space between the bridge of the nose and the mask.


Try it out and see what you think. I am not sure if this works for different face shapes, but it works great for me.

:thumbsup:


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## michfan (Jul 6, 2008)

Typical LC. Typical. LOL

That might be the longest OP I have ever read. Keepin it real, brother. :thumbsup:

Seriously though, I think many of us take this respirator wearing stuff too lightly. 

Someone should come up with a commercial for painters that is similar to those ones back in the day that said something like, "this is your brain and this is your brain on your drugs" (and it shows a pic of a fried egg or something?). Can't remember exactly how it went. Maybe if I would have worn my respirator more often I would actually remember the details :blink:


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

Wow! I've never given so much thought to how I wear a respirator, but you're right they do get uncomfortable after a few hours. I'll try your method out for sure. 

As far as the smell though, if you can still smell fumes through your respirator even though it's good and tight, yes check the bridge of the nose but also make sure your using clean refills and pre-filters, especially after a day of spraying solvent lacquer - that stuff kills filters.


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## Last Craftsman (Dec 5, 2008)

michfan said:


> Seriously though, I think many of us take this respirator wearing stuff too lightly.
> 
> Someone should come up with a commercial for painters that is similar to those ones back in the day that said something like, "this is your brain and this is your brain on your drugs


What people don't realize because it comes on slowly is what they are MISSING.

When is the last time any established painters here didn't paint for 3 months?

I used to alternate between painting and other jobs like teaching windsurfing when I got tired of painting.

I have done this several times, and was able to recognize a difference when I wasn't breathing paint all day.

If anyone here stopped painting even for TWO months. I GUARANTEE they would rediscover a degree vitality, energy, clarity, drive, and inspiration that is absent when they painting every day.

It's incremental so you don't realize it's gone.

Even when you work all day in a house where lacquer was sprayed the PREVIOUS day, you are absorbing ALL KINDS of things that reduce your energy and clarity without you realizing it. Even if you can barely smell the lacquer when you are working.

The same is true for a lot of acrylics especially things like ICI gripper etc.

I promise if people breath clean air for 8 hours a day for a month or two they will see a difference.

I really prefer fresh air systems but all the ones I found are so freaking noisy. I work mostly residential repaints, but anyone who works new construction or commercial GET ONE. Trust me, your life will get better.

:yes:

BTW. Solvents cause *significant* depression. They don't call them nervous system depressants for nothing.


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## jason123 (Jul 2, 2009)

I completely hear LC.
I'm a huge mask wearing guy. always raggin on others that dont.
At times I employ the no bottom strap trick too, on long hauls as long as its sitting nice on your nose she keeps the seal. 
Also the newer 3m respirators with the extra soft rubber are pretty cool. I dont use those older rubber style ones any more.

This is the new softer style. Also the 1/2" of the top nose area is even more soft. They made that small area with less rubber right at the bridge of the nose. Cleaning is pretty easy too, the mask easily flips in on itself!


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