On Tue, 08 Sep 2020 00:30:48 -0700, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

On Mon, 7 Sep 2020 23:09:22 -0700 (PDT), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:

How well would a decent gas mask work?
Cheers

I don't know. I have an old gas mask with a screw in filter canister
that expired perhaps 30 years ago. I'm not thrilled with the prospect
of breathing fumes from whatever bugs and spiders have been living
inside the canister all those years. Also, no photos for a while
because I'm busy replacing my failing home machine to a better and
faster computah. The gas mask is something similar to this:
https://www.amazon.com/Israeli-Mask-Straw-Specifications-Filter/dp/B089JMCTCS

I suppose with a proper filter, a gas mask would work quite well. The
catch is that while the shelf life of the filters is 10-20 years, once
the air seal is broken on the filter canister, I believe that the
filter is only good for perhaps one day. It might be better to find a
full face respirator as used by fire fighters, will certainly be
suitable for smoke and combustion byproducts.

If your mask has the standard 40 mm filters then you can easily change
them. As for length of service it depends on what is being filtered.
In some cases, filtering Chlorine for example, filter life is measured
in minutes and 3M recommends changing a filter that is opened and not
used after 6 months.

OSHA filters N, P or R designate particulate filters. N series filters
are used for any solid or non-oil-containing particulate, and R and P
series filters are used for any particulate, including aerosols.

According to OSHA, the filter needs to be replaced when:

The user has difficulty breathing comfortably or notices an
increase of breathing resistance resulting from particle buildup.
The filter becomes visibly dirty.
The filter is physically damaged.
--

Cheers,

John B.