The Effects of Wearing Respirators on Human Fine Motor, Visual, and Cognitive Performance

Editor(s)

Haslam, Roger

Abstract

When selecting a respirator, it is important to understand how employees' motor, visual and cognitive abilities are impacted by the personal protective equipment. This study compares dust, powered-air-purifying and full-face, negative-pressure respirators. Thirty participants performed three varied tasks. Each participant performed each task without a respirator and while wearing the three respirator types. The tasks included a hand tool dexterity test, the Motor-Free Visual Perception Test and the Serial Sevens Test to evaluate fine motor, visual and cognitive performance, respectively. The time required for task completion and the errors made were measured. Analysis showed no significant effect due to respirator use on the task completion time. A significant increase was found in the error rate when participants performed the cognitive test wearing the full-face, negative-pressure respirator. Participants had varying respirator preferences. They indicated a potential for full-face, negative-pressure respirators to negatively affect jobs demanding high cognitive skills such as problem solving and decision-making.

Department(s)

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering

Second Department

Mathematics and Statistics

Keywords and Phrases

Dust Respirator; PAPR; Full-Face; Fine Motor Task; Viual Task; Cognitive Task

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0014-0139

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2013 Taylor & Francis, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2013

Link to Full Text

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