from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Military filters introduced in the Army of the Czech Republic are most commonly used when working with combat equipment and weapons and in manoeuvring activities in the terrain with the use of explosives or chemical warfare agents. During such activities, a large number of pollutants in the form of nanoparticles are released. Nanoparticles, irrespective of their chemical composition, are classified as carcinogenic to humans and therefore it is necessary to eliminate them from the air. Military filters, especially the combined ones, which contain a filtration as well as sorption component, are most widely used and are designed for the widest range of pollutants. However, the current methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of military filters does not fix a duty to monitor the ability of the filters to capture relevant pollutants across the whole range of sizes. The paper evaluates the efficiency of selected types of military filters using the methodology and instrumentation introduced in the accredited laboratories of the Institute of Analytical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The testing has been carried out simultaneously with two concentrations of ultra-fine aerosols containing lead oxide nanoparticles ranging in size from 7.6 nm to 299.6 nm. It is an aerosol, the physicochemical and toxicological properties of which are known. During the work the basic parameters of permeability of aerosols tested by filters have been evaluated, especially: size and number of particles in front of and behind the filter, the efficiency and penetration of nanoparticles by the filter.
Keywords: nanoparticle, filter, efficiency, health safety© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.