§ Mr. PikeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many research projects the Health and Safety Executive has funded in the past five years which analysed the effectiveness of respiratory protective equipment. [31992]
§ Mr. PikeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment which respiratory protective equipment has been identified to give less protection than claimed by the manufacturer in research projects funded by the Health and Safety Executive in the last five years. [32008]
§ Sir Paul BeresfordResearch projects funded by the Health and Safety Executive in the last five years have examined the field performance of respiratory protective equipment, including full-facepiece powered respirators, compared with their performance in laboratory-based tests. The HSE is not aware that manufacturers claim that respiratory protective equipment will always meet in practice the standard of protection that can be achieved in laboratory tests, so it is not possible to say from the HSE's research which respirators given less protection than that claimed.
The HSE has for some time advised users of respirators that they should not rely on laboratory-derived information alone when choosing appropriate respiratory protective equipment.