The effects of personal protective respirators on human motor, visual, and cognitive skills

In oxygen-deficient or toxic environments in which controlling the hazard is not feasible, workers wear personal protective respirators. Hazard controls include but are not limited to engineering controls, such as ventilation, and substituting less hazardous materials. However, respirator selection and the design of tasks that require respirators are critical issues. Understanding the effects of respirators on human abilities is critical to respirator selection and therefore to the safety and efficiency of workers. This research investigated the effect of respirators on human abilities. A review of the relevant literature was conducted, revealing that respirators can affect physiological, psychological, motor, and visual abilities. However, the effect varies with different types of respirators, environments and task types and difficulty levels. The details of this variance were identified and further investigated through experimentation. The study compared a dust respirator, powered-air purifying respirator and full-facepiece respirator in terms of their effect on fine motor, visual and cognitive tasks. Thirty participants performed the Hand Tool Dexterity test, Motor-Free Visual Perception test (MVPT-3) and Serial Seven test. Each participant performed each task without a respirator and then while wearing each type of respirator. Task completion time and error rate were measured as indicators of performance. Participants also were surveyed regarding respirator comfort, anxiety level, and perceived task difficulty. ANOVA, least significant difference, and least square means analyses showed that none of the respirators significantly affected task completion time. A significant increase was found in the error rate when participants performed the cognitive test while wearing the full-facepiece respirator --Abstract, page iv

The Effects of Wearing Respirators on Human Fine Motor, Visual, and Cognitive Performance

When selecting a respirator, it is important to understand how employees\u27 motor, visual and cognitive abilities are impacted by the personal protective equipment. This study compares dust, powered-air-purifying and full-face, negative-pressure respirators. Thirty participants performed three varied tasks. Each participant performed each task without a respirator and while wearing the three respirator types. The tasks included a hand tool dexterity test, the Motor-Free Visual Perception Test and the Serial Sevens Test to evaluate fine motor, visual and cognitive performance, respectively. The time required for task completion and the errors made were measured. Analysis showed no significant effect due to respirator use on the task completion time. A significant increase was found in the error rate when participants performed the cognitive test wearing the full-face, negative-pressure respirator. Participants had varying respirator preferences. They indicated a potential for full-face, negative-pressure respirators to negatively affect jobs demanding high cognitive skills such as problem solving and decision-making