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■ Mobomo – Fit & Breathe: Complete particulate filtering facepiece respirator management.
■ MyMaskMovement – Mobile app that makes fit testing inclusive/accessible.
Now underway, Phase 3 comprises the demonstration and NIOSH testing pe- riod, with submissions of functional pro- totypes delivered for Evaluation due May 15. During this phase, selected winning submissions from Phase 2 will build pre- production prototypes for NIOSH evalu- ation. Winners of this phase will receive a monetary award, with first place awarded $75,000, second place earning $50,000, and third place receiving $25,000.
“There’s a quantitative and qualitative component to the Phase 3 evaluation,” Smith explains. “There will be some physi- cal testing and measurements performed, and some qualitative analysis of what an entry’s technology is, what it can do, and its readiness.”
And that’s where the partnership with other entities can really help, Smith notes.
“We’re partnering with NASA,” he says. “That gives us access to some very applied platforms to conduct the challenge.”
That partnering helps spread the word.
“Because this is a niche area and we wanted to make sure that we received really good solutions. [The NASA partnership] is another mechanism to get information out there; they help with the spread of the information coming out of this challenge,” Smith adds.
A Multi-Faceted Mission
Ultimately, the Respirator Fit Evaluation Challenge is just one part of a multi-fac- eted mission blending various approaches to improve mask fit for workers, Director D’Alessandro underscores. In addition to the challenge, NIOSH/NPPTL was instru- mental in the ASTM consensus standard development of the test method for respi- rator fit capability, and she notes there is a possibility of incorporating that in federal regulation in the future. Also, a train-the- trainer program for respirator outreach,
training, education, and community test- ing will improve access to fit testing for workers who don’t have respiratory protec- tion programs, and it could be applicable to the public. Also, D’Alessandro notes NIOSH is in the alpha stages of developing a mobile facial scanning smartphone app to assist in mask fitting.
“It’s an objective of ours to identify these innovative solutions to assess and validate fit, to improve adoption by end users” D’Alessandro says underscores the reticence of some workers to participate in annual fit testing. “The hope is that this will help us identify a future with innova- tive approaches to know that a product fits you.”
David Kopf is the Publisher and Executive Editor of Occupational Health & Safety.
REFERENCE
1. tinyurl.com/4nmp5pb7t
wwwU.onthitsleod-n3lin1e.com
APRIL/MAY 2024 | Occupational Health & S2a/f7e/2ty4
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