ANSI standard coming for counter terrorism respirators
"In many cases we don't have enough information to predict how well any respirator will protect under the very unusual circumstances of a terrorist event," says Manuel R. Gomez, DrPH, CIH, director of Scientific Affairs for the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA). "We need better information about what each type of respirator can do and how to use them properly."
The voluntary consensus standard committee ANSI/AIHA ASC Z88, accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), provides guidelines for selection and use for many types of respirators. But those guidelines do not address conditions that can arise from the use of chemical or biological weapons. No current ANSI standards address respirator use during responses to these incidents.