Interesting thing to us is why celebrate the N95 filtering facepiece respirators? Filtering facepiece respirators have their place in protecting workers from respiratory hazards, however, that place is very limited. This type of respirator cannot and should not be used for respirable dusts like asbestos or lead. Nor should it be used for vapors or mists or gases. As the picture above from Ground Zero - 9/11 World Trade Center rescue, recovery and cleanup shows, knowing which respirator to wear was one of the problems for the workers who worked there. The picture shows workers wearing filtering facepiece respirators and half mask air purifying respirators. Considering the contaminants (asbestos, mercury, PCBs, to name a few) at the site, filtering facepiece respirators should not have been a choice at all. This is probably the main reason to have an N95 day is to make sure people understand the limitations of this type of respirator. But why limit it to filtering facepiece respirators, we should be celebrating all respirators! So for our part we say Happy Respirator Day!
