Where your respirator seals with your face, nothing must come between the respirator and your skin. Eyeglass frames, head coverings, beards, sideburns, and stubble must not interfere with the seal.

You must be clean-shaven where the respirator seals with the face. Some workers think the clean-shaven rule is too strict. "Does it really matter if there's a bit of stubble on my face?"

The answer is yes. It matters a lot. Stubble prevents the mask from forming a good seal with the face. Stubble may seem small, but it is huge when you compare it with dust, mist, fibres, fume particles, and gas and vapour molecules. Stubble under the respirator seal creates plenty of room for contaminants to enter the mask.

The need to be clean-shaven applies only to those respirators that depend on a tight seal between the face and the facepiece. Loose-fitting hood or helmet respirators that do not require a tight face seal may be an appropriate alternative for workers with facial hair such as mustaches or beards.

If you have prescription eyeglasses, you may need to obtain special frames to use with a full-facepiece respirator so that your glasses do not affect the seals.

Contact Lenses and Respirators

Contact lenses can be worn with a full facepiece if all of the following precautions are taken:

• The employer is notified that contact lenses will be worn.
• The worker puts on the respirator in an atmosphere that does not cause the eyes to be irritated and that does not cause irritating gases or vapours to be absorbed by the contact lens.
• The worker does not wear contact lenses when the eyes are irritated or inflamed. If the respirator is necessary for planned work or in the event of an emergency, alternative corrective eyewear that does not interfere with the seal should be used with the respirator.

Relative sizes of a human hair, a glass fibre, an asbestos fibre, and fume particles show that if there is enough room for a hair between the skin and the respirator, there is room for many contaminants to enter.

A proper respirator seal is essential for protection. At GamaSafety, we stress the importance of being clean-shaven and using the right equipment to keep contaminants out.

Training Center: 122-2544 Douglas Road, Burnaby BC. V5C 5B4, Canada.

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