This respirator is a cheaply priced but excellent product suitable for protecting your lungs during jewelry-making and household tasks in general. At the time I bought mine, it was rated the number one bestselling product in the Amazon.com categories of Home Improvement - Painting Supplies and Wall Treatments - Masks, Respirators. The detailed customer reviews and product page information influenced me to buy that particular product, and to buy it from Amazon. In accordance with the Amazon Prime shipping program, I received my respirator with free shipping in only two days after I placed my order.(COPYRIGHT: I'm so sorry to have to put this here, but I've had trouble with online content theft. Readers are welcome to print my articles for their personal use, but I do not allow my text or photos to be copied to anyone's online site. No one may use my content without written permission from me.)
The MSA Safety Works Multi-Purpose respirator has 31 Amazon.com customer ratings with 19 of those at five stars out of a possible five. The detailed customer reviews come from many different types of consumers, including model hobbyists who work with toxic-smelling putty, glues, and paints (enamel, acrylic, and lacquer); woodworkers seeking to avoid wood dust; and homeowners doing things like spray-sealing fences and grinding basement floors to install tile.
The product page further explains that respirator provides effective protection by trapping more than 99.97 of toxic dust including lead, asbestos and Hantavirus. It conforms to the most current US government respirator standards (P100 Class), as well as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) requirements.
With the exception of urethane paints, the respirator protects against paint fumes, pesticides, lead fumes, ammonia, asbestos, and toxic dusts. So you can use this thing to protect you when stripping paint, mowing the lawn, dusting the books, and pursuing your jewelry-making vocation. And it's only $24.99 with two cartridges included in the package. What's not to like?
If you are a jewelry maker, you need a respirator, especially if you plan to cast jewelry in molds using resin. Resin is some seriously toxic, stinky stuff that you don't want to inhale. If you plan to grind bone, stone, wood, or hardened polymer clay, you need a respirator to protect you from breathing the dust. If you work with enamel, paints, or glues, it is essential to have a respirator.
Since this respirator is a half-mask, it consists of a heavy-duty, comfortable seal that fits over my mouth and nose. Unlike with a full-mask respirator, none of this interferes with my glasses, so I don't have to worry about my lenses fogging up and impeding my ability to see close-up detail as I'm working. The two cartridges sit on either side of the seal, below my line of vision, so they are not distracting.
The whole thing is very lightweight and comfortable on the face. When absorbed in my work, I forget I'm wearing them, aside from the gentle whooshing sound of my breathing moving through the cartridges. My only complaint, and it's tiny, is that the plastic buckles that I have to fumble with to adjust the length of the head and neck straps appear to be a bit flimsy. This is probably part of the plan to keep the product feather-light in weight, and therefore comfortable to wear for a long time. I plan to handle the plastic buckles with care so as not to break them. The MSA Safety Works Multi-Purpose respirator can be found on Amazon.com: MSA Safety Works 817663 Multi-Purpose Respirator
