Is the CE marking mandatory? In Europe, all products covered by a European regulatory text (a regulation or directive) must bear the CE (European Conformity) marking. For personal protective equipment, EU regulation 2016/425 (formerly the 89/686/EC directive) regulates the manufacture and marketing of fall protection PPE.

The ultimate choice in comfortable, durable protection.

The 3M™ Ultimate FX Full Facepiece Respirator FF-400 For the work you do, comfort and durability are everything. With a soft feel to the face, comfortable head cradle, plus reduced heat and moisture buildup, 3M's Ultimate FX Full Facepiece Respirator delivers premium comfort that lasts as long as you do. And it's the only respirator with 3M's unique Scotchgard™ Paint and Stain Protector, which helps keep the lens dirt-, paint- and stain-resistant - not to mention so much easier to clean.

Artificial stone used to make kitchen and bathroom countertops has been linked to cases of death and irreversible lung injury in workers who cut, grind and polish this increasingly popular material.

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Disposable respirators are most effective when there is a good seal between the edges of the respirator and your face. The instant this seal is broken, protection is compromised as contaminated air can leak in through any gaps.

Read More for fitting instructions.

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• The Respirator's Seal

  A good fit means the respirator will seal to your skin. A respirator can only work when air passes through the filter. Air will take the path of least resistance, so if the seal isn’t there, the air will go around rather than through the respirator – and therefore lessen the protection.

• User Seal Check: An Essential Everyday Test

  Employees wearing tight-fitting respiratory protection should perform a seal check each time they put on their respirator. A fit test ensures that the respirator is able to fit and provide a secure seal, but a user seal check ensures that it’s being worn right each time.

  Users can either perform a positive-pressure or negative-pressure seal check:

  • A positive-pressure check means blocking the exhalation valve on a half or full facepiece respirator or covering the respirator surface on a filtering facepiece, usually by using your hands, and trying to breathe out. If slight pressure builds up, that means air isn’t leaking around the edges of the respirator.
  • A negative-pressure check involves blocking the intake valves on a half or full facepiece respirator or covering the respirator surface on a filtering facepiece, typically using your hands and trying to breathe in. If no air enters, the seal is tight.

  See the product User Instructions for more details.

• Compatibility with other PPE

  Safety glasses, hearing protection, face shields, hard hats and coveralls can all vie with a respirator for real estate on a person’s face, head or body. For instance, if a half face respirator doesn’t fit well (especially if it’s too large), it can overlap with glasses. The more that happens, the more fogging can potentially occur on glasses, and the more likely it is that they’ll interfere with the respirator’s seal.

  To catch these problems before they happen on the job any PPE that could interfere with the respirator’s seal to be worn during the fit test.

• Respirator Stability

  The better a respirator fits, the more stable it’s likely to be on the wearer’s face. Fit testing determines the respirator’s ability to retain its seal when the worker is in motion. That’s why test subjects are told to go through several exercises as part of testing. A respirator that shifts during movement may not be able to retain its seal.

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The biggest lung disease crisis since asbestos: Our love of stone kitchen benchtops is killing workers

Doctors are worried Australia is facing the worst occupational lung disease crisis since the peak of the asbestos disaster.

Stonemasons who cut engineered stone into a popular type of kitchen benchtop are contracting accelerated silicosis at alarming levels, after being exposed to unsafe levels of silica dust.

The 30-year-old EU PPE Directive 89/686 has been replaced by PPE Regulation 2016/425. The following FAQ contains more information on the impacts and rollout of the change.

Why the change? 

The directive is nearly 30 years old and the personal protective equipment market has undergone significant change since its inception. It was therefore necessary to update the text of the directive to adapt to changes in the market. This change allows for better definition of the roles and responsibilities for everyone involved in the market: manufacturers, importers, distributors and notified bodies.