Paint Respirator

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A paint respirator can help reduce your exposure to toxic paint fumes. But the importance of safety is often over looked even by professionals and contractors alike. When we think of safety we usually think about lifting or climbing and not about inhalants. Paint fumes while tolerable at first, can have serious effects on your health. Choosing the right type of mask can seem easy at first, but is it really? I’ve heard many stories of people using a dust mask thinking it would be good for paint fumes as well. The most common types of masks in our experience are made by 3M.

For painting and some other types of vapors you will require an organic vapor cartridge. These cartridges are designed to capture and hold the vapors rather than for you to breathe them in. Now it is important to note that these cartridges are not suitable for all types of vapors. Nor are they for life threatening environments or heavily saturated environments. For that you will need some sort of SCBA, self breathing apparatus, or similar.

If you are doing a lot of painting in your house or in the garage, I suggest you get a full faced paint respirator. The reason for this is because vapors can still irritate and penetrate the eyes causing an unknown amount of damage. How important is your eye sight? Get the point? These will run you anywhere from $26 to $50 online and about $45-$80 at your local hardware store for this protective mask. It’s a good idea that you have as much ventilation in your garage or house as possible. These masks are not the same as using a SCBA device.

Now if you are just a regular person out in the back yard painting your dog house, then using a half faced paint respirator or a smaller latex paint respirator would be just fine. These will run you anywhere from $5 and up. The important part is to make sure that it seals around your nose and chin areas. Men with a lot of facial hair may need to shave to get a proper seal. The other important part is the cartridge itself. Make sure that it specifies on the label the types of fumes and environments it is rated for. Never skimp on this! Your health is number 1.

If you’re a contractor or someone who is going to be in a really heavily vapor saturated environment you should look in to purchasing an air purifying unit. Make sure it is PPAR certified. These masks don’t just filter they will also purify the air you’re breathing in. Unfortunately these are going to run you over $1000.

Use Fresh Cartridges

Another safety paint respirator tip is to use fresh cartridges. I’ve seen people reuse them over and over and never use a fresh one. If your going to be painting over the course of a week, as long as the cartridge is not heavily used, you can store it in an airtight container for next use. Most of these use charcoal in the filter and it will degrade with exposure to the air. Most cartridges will give you a guide on how long a paint respirator cartridge will last you. Some of them even have color changing filters.

If you’re not sure which paint respirator to use, always ask someone who knows. Not only can your local hardware store help you but I’m sure you have friends who have done extensive painting as well.