Conclusions
Irradiation of two different filtering facepiece respirators with
electron beam irradiation allows to determine that applied irradiation
doses does not affect filtrating materials stability and integrity. SEM
analysis revealed that morphology of the fibres used for the respirators
production remains the same after irradiation with both doses as the
morphology of control samples and any effect like crack and holes are
not visible for all filtrating layers . In case of the 1863+ respirator
slight degradation of the material was confirmed while completely
different behaviour was observed for 9101E respirator.
Presented results confirmed that the decrease in filtration efficiency
after irradiation of both respirators results from elimination of the
electric charge from the PP fibers in the irradiation process.
Therefore, decontamination of filtering facepiece respirators with
electron beam irradiation is problematic without regard to applied
doses. Nevertheless, applied doses did not influence filtering materials
structure and integrity, therefore application of treated in this way
masks can be considered after restoration of electric charge what is
crucial for their filtering function.