Study of factors that influence the use of respirators in uranium mines

A statistical analysis was performed of the responses to a user's survey by uranium miners who were voluntary users of a helmet-type powered respirator. The analysis concludes that the duration of visor-lifting was lognormally distributed with a geometric mean of 1.15 hours. Use depends strongly on job category. Many of the factors examined by the survey were use-dependent instead of use-dtermining, or had no effect on proper use. Many of the miners stated the respirator could not cope with hard work, its visor fogged up. The very abundance of these comments prevented confirming an association between fogging and use by statistical means. Recommendations on future user's surveys are given