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Today's personal protective equipment (PPE) includes clothing, helmets, respirators, goggles and other gear to reduce exposures the wearer experiences from chemicals, heat, electrical hazards, infection and more.
One aspect of PPE, respiratory protection, has been used for hundreds of years. As far back as the first century, Pliny the Elder described a filtering device for use against vermillion dust. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was concerned with providing respiratory protection against chemical warfare agents and suggested using a wet cloth. Also in the 16th century, Agricola described the respirator-like devices used in mines.
In the United States, as in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, the search for respiratory protection centered on the fire services. Firemen often were required to have a full beard. They would soak their beards with water and clamp them in their teeth before going into a smoke-filled area in an effort to block some of the larger airborne particulates.
The first U.S. patent for an air-purifying respirator was granted on June 12, 1849 to Lewis P. Haslett. The Haslett's Lung Protector used a moistened wool filter or similar porous material and one-way clapper valves to filter dust.
As late as early last century, fire departments still had few options for respiratory protection devices. In 1910, former firefighter Robert Wells described the Berkeley, Calif. department's methods for combating smoke inhalation. "The boys used to have a plug of tobacco
they would chew in their mouth to breath less smoke and drink ample amounts of steam beer afterward to cleanse their lungs."
In the 20th century, as technology improved, government regulations were enacted to protect the safety and health of workers, particularly those in high-risk industries such as mining. At various times, these regulations have driven innovation, and sometimes innovation has exceeded what the regulations require, eventually resulting in changing regulations.
At times, regulations have been the impetus for the development of increasingly advanced technologies and created the incentive for companies to develop new, state-of-the-art respiratory protection products. In countries that lack an effective regulatory structure, workers and citizens are taking responsibility to protect their health, occasionally using makeshift respiratory protection devices when nothing else is available.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
Congress established the United States Bureau of Mines (USBOM) in 1910, following...