«THE LABOUR SAFETY» №10, 2005

Matvienko N.N. Candidate of chemical sciences, senior lecturer, chief of the research center of the Epicenter market LLC

General designing principles of filtering self-rescuers for the population.

While designing filtering self-rescuers for the population, as well as creating other personal safety equipment, various technical decisions can be used. At the same time, there are some general questions and principles that have their reflection in final design of samples. These questions and principles should be established, agreed, and reflected in the corresponding specifications and technical documentation as the general technical requirements that are an initial point of product design. In our opinion, legal documents concerning self-rescuers should reflect following fundamental points:

1. Determination of self-rescuers for the population as the separate class of PSERA.

Currently self-rescuers for the population are not considered as separate class of personal safety equipment and do not have their own legal and technical basis. Existing separate documents are fragmented and not agreed at many points. As a result we have constant tendency to place these products under the existing standards developed for means of protection of other classes. It results in misunderstanding of ideology of development and use of the given kind of products and, finally, breaks their development, manufacture and promotion to the consumer market. Necessity of separating self-rescuers into the separate class and, therefore, developing their own legal basis is caused by a number of their objective differences from other classes of PSERA shown in table №1.

Basic differences of self-rescuers by the purpose, functioning, frequency rates and time of use cause, in particular, necessity to re-specify the list of damaging factors and to establish levels of their influence. Requirements to these parameters are determined in two domestic documents: NPB 302-2001/1/ and GOST Р 22.9.09-2005/2/. Document 1 determines list of DCS (dangerous chemical substances) that need full attention in providing protection of respiratory apparatus at evacuation from any facilities during fire and also maximum level of protective properties required; it can be met with products weighing 0,8-1,3 kg. Experience of selling PSERA meeting the requirements of NPB shows that such products are not in great demand, supply rate of the population for them is extremely low.

Attempt to provide the highest level of protection of the population leads to the situation reflected and officially regulated by GOST 22.3.03-97/ GOST Р 22.3.03-94: "All PSE manufactured should be mainly directed to maintenance of staff of the formations prepared for carrying out saving and other urgent works in the centers of defeat. Other people should use the elementary and improvised means". The same document explains that the elementary and improvised means include antidust fabric masks and bandages/3/. The statement that such a miserable situation with self-rescuers is only "merit" of NPB requirements will be certainly wrong but further continuation of policy of determining requirements to such products based on principle "either maximum of protection - or nothing (face bandage)" cannot lead to serious moves in providing safety of the population of the Russian Federation.