DCHAS-L Discussion List Archive
From: Jeffrey Lewin <jclewin**At_Symbol_Here**MTU.EDU>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Face masks and solvents
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2020 09:53:27 -0400
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Message-ID: CAEwQnqjLT2V0R_ic1OcgTjRhQ0qmnUstg1ik_7n5Rpsd+H0qtQ**At_Symbol_Here**mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To <37F0E0D5-C0D5-48A5-97A5-6A792507C3FD**At_Symbol_Here**keene.edu>
And, of course, the cloth face covering doesn't necessarily need to be splashed, it could be from (gloved) hand to face covering contact.
A slide I've added to my Responsible Conduct of Research safety presentation on glove use highlights BSL-2 users were observed to be touching their face regularly:
[slide]
Glove Safety
From the article "The influence of risk perception on biosafety level-2 laboratory workers' hand-to-face contact behaviors"
Of the 93 subjects, 67 (72%) touched their face at least once, ranging from 0.2-16.0 HFCs/hr (hand-to-face contacts/ hour)
contact with the nose was (44.9%)
forehead (36.9%)
cheek/chin (12.5%)
mouth (4.0%)
eye (1.7%).
[/slide]
Citation:
Johnston JD1, Eggett D,
Johnson MJ, Reading JC. The influence
of risk perception on biosafety level-2 laboratory workers' hand-to-face
contact behaviors. J Occup Environ Hyg. 2014;11(9):625-32.
doi:
10.1080/15459624.2014.887206 > We have received several questions from labs about the risk of solvent vapors being "trapped" in cloth face masks.
Personally, I am more concerned about masks becoming contaminated by a splash of a solvent or other chemical than the masks impacting fugitive vapors. A spill onto a mask could create a longer exposure to the chemical than a maskless situation, particularly if the wearer is unaware of the splash.
One reason this scenario occurs to me is an experience I had at another school when a Teaching Assistant in a teaching biolab called me because she had spilled a gallon of Coomassie Blue onto her pants. She wanted me to clean up the spill because she was busy working with the students. When I arrived 30 minutes later, she was still wearing the contaminated pants and her skin was turning red from the continued exposure to the acetic acid / alcohol mixture. She only took the pants off after I provided her with tyvek coveralls to wear. She insisted on staying in the classroom until the class was over.
And when I was a lab tech working with inorganic acids, a line of holes developed in my pants at bench height; this was not an uncommon experience in our group.
The point is that cloth face masks are more likely to retain liquids than vapors in a problematic way.
- Ralph
Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
Environmental Safety Manager
Keene State College
603 358-2859
ralph.stuart**At_Symbol_Here**keene.edu
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--
Jeff Lewin
Director of Chemical Laboratory Operations
Research Integrity Office
Laboratory Operations
205 Lakeshore Center
Michigan Technological University
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