Brin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
brin_bellway) wrote2021-01-16 11:18 pm
brin_bellway) wrote2021-01-16 11:18 pm
Respirator, part 3: Moving parts
[cw: illness, apocalypse]
(part 2)
---
Today the *left* filter fell off.
Forty minutes into my shift, as I was ringing up a customer, I thought '...is that my imagination, or can I smell Ambient Restaurant Scent? I'd better check my respirator next time I get the opportunity.' About ten seconds later the filter fell off.
Since I was now both generally aware that this is a thing that could happen and specifically aware that this is a thing that could be *about* to happen, I did not swear or panic. I took the filter, went to the far end of the back of house for maximum distancing, took off my hat and my respirator but *not* my glasses this time, stuck the filter back on, put stuff back on my head, went to serve the next customer. It only took about three or four breaths, albeit fairly conserved ones.
I *had* noticed this afternoon that the left filter seemed to unscrew without needing much force, and in particular that it needed less force than the right. Today during the shift it seemed to screw on very far and with more resistance, so perhaps I've got it on correctly this time.
Regardless of whether the problem is noobish mistakes or 2020 corner-cutting, it's an excellent example of the importance of practising your preps. If I had left this respirator in an evacuation kit for a couple years Just In Case, and then something horrible *did* happen and left me evacuating through a big cloud of highly toxic fumes, I would have been fucked about an hour and a half in when the first filter fell off. I am fortunate to be [testing]/[practising with] this device in a situation of much milder toxicity, where you can (*knocks on wood*) almost always get away with taking four unfiltered breaths. I have correspondingly incremented my desire to go camping at some point and try to live out of an evacuation kit for a night.
---
I already talked in part 2 about how a P100 with 1 minute of masklessness per shift compares very favourably to a full shift of cloth, but also there's specifically a huge psychological benefit in having immaterial quantities of virus exposure on the *marginal* breath. I'm so much less stressed! It's so much easier to be kind to people who aren't actively endangering you with every second they spend in your airspace!
(part 2)
---
Today the *left* filter fell off.
Forty minutes into my shift, as I was ringing up a customer, I thought '...is that my imagination, or can I smell Ambient Restaurant Scent? I'd better check my respirator next time I get the opportunity.' About ten seconds later the filter fell off.
Since I was now both generally aware that this is a thing that could happen and specifically aware that this is a thing that could be *about* to happen, I did not swear or panic. I took the filter, went to the far end of the back of house for maximum distancing, took off my hat and my respirator but *not* my glasses this time, stuck the filter back on, put stuff back on my head, went to serve the next customer. It only took about three or four breaths, albeit fairly conserved ones.
I *had* noticed this afternoon that the left filter seemed to unscrew without needing much force, and in particular that it needed less force than the right. Today during the shift it seemed to screw on very far and with more resistance, so perhaps I've got it on correctly this time.
Regardless of whether the problem is noobish mistakes or 2020 corner-cutting, it's an excellent example of the importance of practising your preps. If I had left this respirator in an evacuation kit for a couple years Just In Case, and then something horrible *did* happen and left me evacuating through a big cloud of highly toxic fumes, I would have been fucked about an hour and a half in when the first filter fell off. I am fortunate to be [testing]/[practising with] this device in a situation of much milder toxicity, where you can (*knocks on wood*) almost always get away with taking four unfiltered breaths. I have correspondingly incremented my desire to go camping at some point and try to live out of an evacuation kit for a night.
---
I already talked in part 2 about how a P100 with 1 minute of masklessness per shift compares very favourably to a full shift of cloth, but also there's specifically a huge psychological benefit in having immaterial quantities of virus exposure on the *marginal* breath. I'm so much less stressed! It's so much easier to be kind to people who aren't actively endangering you with every second they spend in your airspace!