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Abstract
This thesis is concerned with the identification, elimination and reduction of barriers to the use of personal respiratory protective equipment (RPE) in the workplace to reduce and prevent occupational inhalation disease.
Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) is widely used in industry, health, emergency response, military settings and many other applications and are in daily use by thousands of people in Australasia.
The equipment is generally used to filter or ab/adsorb the contaminants from the air prior to delivery to the wearer by filtering or ad/absorbing contaminants from the air prior to being breathed. There is increasing concerns being expressed worldwide as well as in Australia and New Zealand about the apparent increase in diagnosed occupational diseases and the use of RPE is an essential preventative measure able to be adopted by workplaces.
The use of this type of equipment is the option after the preferred options of elimination and isolation of the individual from the contaminant in the atmosphere. In spite of this, many different types of RPE are routinely in use.
There are, however, enormous practical, physiological and psychological difficulties in the wearing of RPE.
Concerns have been expressed in the literature as well as in practical situations that many different types of RPE was unable to meet the needs of workers, particularly as related to airflows and that current standards did not reflect the real-life workplace demands. This work set out to determine an improved methodology for users to determine the total inward leakage (TIL), the different types and quantities of airflows, particularly Peak Inspiratory Air Flows (PIAF). When communicating (an essential aspect in the workplace for safety reasons), PIAFs rise dramatically. This work showed that PIAF were very high, particularly when communicating, and is likely to exceed the ability of many commercial types of commercially available respiratory equipment as well being in excess of the certification requirements of standard bodies. In addition, Minute Volumes (MV) in a typical Australian workforce were shown to be very variable between individuals and current certification requirement of airflows do not appear to reflect practical use.
The thesis further investigated using a questionnaire survey, the knowledge and current intervention measures adopted by farmers in different sections of agriculture, particularly dairy farming. Agriculture in New Zealand is a critical economic activity, employing 10% of the total workforce. This work showed that in spite of many different types of intervention activity spread over many years by Government agencies and private organisations to date, limited awareness exists of inhalation diseases and appropriate types of RPE in different applications (for example, confined space applications). The research would suggest that a different and more intensive approach is needed by Government agencies to address the problem in this workplace community if workplace inhalation diseases are to be reduced in the future.