I purchased an AOSafety “Professional Multi-Purpose Respirator” (number 95050) several months back, and I need to know if this would be good to use when airbrushing stuff for my model railroad. I would like to use both acrylic and enamel paints.
The respirator says that AOSafety recommends it for:
-Paint and Pesticides sprays/vapors
-Chlorine and Muriatic Acid
-Lead and Asbestos dusts/fumes.
It also says that it should not be used for:
-Ammonia
-Formaldehyde
-Paints or coatings containing isocyanate materials
-Abrasive blasting (including sandblasting)
Is this respirator what I should be using? I want to get airbrushing, but concerns about my health are frustrating me.
I spend pretty much my whole work day wearing a respirator. I have to wear one for biological protection, but the premise is the same. This one is ok for respiratory protection. BUT remember two things:
The filters are only good for a certain amount of time or a certain concentration (it should give you NIOSH details in the insert) before they clog or break down. So be careful when re-using them.
This type will NOT protect you fully against most of the nasties on the list if you don’t wear air-tight eye protection. Aerosol and vapor penetration of the eye membrane is a lot faster and easier than respiratory membranes. A lot of paints use xylene, benzene, alcohol, etc as the solvent for the pigments and can penetrate the sclera fairly easy. I would recommend either a full face respirator or swim goggles (the cheaper, yet just as effective alternative).
You also may want to consider some ventilation, such as a strong fan to prevent vapor buildup.
Well, to start with, I think I’ll just be using Testors acrylic paints, so I won’t have to worry about solvents. What I’m most worried about is the paint particles (unless there is something else I should take into concern as well???).
Also, when buying a respirator for acrylic paints, is protection from paint sprays and vapors (like my respirator offers) the main thing you want to look for?
I may buy a hood to work under to filter out particles, but in the summer, I may just work in a garage with the door open; would that provide adequate ventilation?
The great thing about paints is that you will have particles (primarily in aerosol form) and vapors! I think if you are in a garage, with the door open, doing model train stuff (as opposed to painting your entire car) and a fan on to circulate the air, you won’t have much vapor buildup. The respirator you listed works well for vapors. It probably works well against particulates as well. Since your vapor risk seems low, you might be better off just wearing an N95 particulate respirator and goggles. You can buy a big box of N95s for way cheaper than vapor respirator. Surgical masks and the garbage you buy at Home Depot (usually wont filter micron-sized particles) will NOT offer any respiratory protection. 3M makes a bunch of good ones (that we sometimes use in our laboratory).
Postdog, you still should have a spray booth of some kind - these have been discussed extensivly in other threads. Not only do they pull fumes away from you, they pull the particles also. If you spray without ventilation, you will get a cloud of paint overspray in the area which will settle on what you are painting, and will contribute to a rough surface. If you are in your garage, the particles could settle on you car and depending on how slowly they dry could stick to the finish.[tdn][oops]
I just picked up 3 of the 3M N95s at Lowes today for $6. My usage is acrylic paint only and no solvent based paints. There are different filters for those.
With airbrushing you’ll get very little airborne particles unless you feed it with way toooooo much air . That one will do fine . About 1/20 of what a spray can will produce . Been airbrushing for over 20 years … keep your air feed as low as possible .