Editing Respirator (section)

== History ==
=== Earliest records to 19th century ===
[[File: Medico peste.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Plague doctor]]]]
The history of protective respiratory equipment can be traced back as far as the first century, when [[Pliny the Elder]] ({{circa|23 AD}}–79) described using animal bladder skins to protect workers in Roman mines from red lead oxide dust.<ref>{{cite wikisource | title=Naturalis_Historia/Liber_XXXIII#XL|wslanguage=la}}</ref> In the 16th century, [[Leonardo da Vinci]] suggested that a finely woven cloth dipped in water could protect sailors from a toxic weapon made of powder that he had designed.<ref>{{cite web |date=11 September 2001 |title=Women in the US Military&nbsp;– History of Gas Masks |url=http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/rr/s01/cw/students/leeann/historyandcollections/collections/photopages/phesgasmasks.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110512042523/http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/rr/s01/cw/students/leeann/historyandcollections/collections/photopages/phesgasmasks.html |archive-date=12 May 2011 |access-date=18 April 2010 |publisher=Chnm.gmu.edu}}</ref>

[[Alexander von Humboldt]] introduced a primitive respirator in 1799 when he worked as a mining engineer in Prussia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LW1oAAAAcAAJ|title=Ueber die unterirdischen Gasarten und die Mittel ihren Nachtheil zu vermindern|website=WorldAtlas|year=1799|language=en|access-date=2020-03-27|last1=Humboldt|first1=Alexander von}}</ref>

[[Julius Jeffreys]] first used the word "respirator" as a mask in 1836.<ref name="Zuck-1990">{{cite journal|author=David Zuck|date=1990|title=Julius Jeffreys: Pioneer of humidification|url=http://kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/21/120/15-78-188-22-1990-Zuck-JeffreysResp.pdf|journal=Proceedings of the History of Anaesthesia Society|volume=8b|pages=70–80|access-date=16 August 2020|archive-date=4 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104215545/http://kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/21/120/15-78-188-22-1990-Zuck-JeffreysResp.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:John Stenhouse's mask.png|thumb|left|Woodcut of Stenhouse's mask]]
In 1848, the first US patent for an air-purifying respirator was granted to [[Lewis P. Haslett]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Christianson|first=Scott|title=Fatal Airs: The Deadly History and Apocalyptic Future of Lethal Gases that Threaten Our World|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2010|isbn=9780313385520|author-link=Scott Christianson}}</ref> for his 'Haslett's Lung Protector,' which filtered dust from the air using one-way clapper valves and a filter made of moistened wool or a similar [[porosity|porous]] substance.<ref>{{cite patent |country=US |number=6529A |status=patent |title=Lung Protector |pubdate=1849-06-12 |gdate=1849-06-12 |inventor=Lewis P. Haslett |url=https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search/family/002066829/publication/US6529A?q=US6529A }} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308054414/https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search/family/002066829/publication/US6529A?q=US6529A |date=8 March 2021 }}</ref> Hutson Hurd patented a cup-shaped mask in 1879 which became widespread in industrial use.<ref>{{Cite patent|title=Improvement in inhaler and respirator|gdate=1879-08-26|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US218976A/en}}</ref>

Inventors in Europe included [[John Stenhouse]], a Scottish chemist, who investigated the power of charcoal in its various forms, to capture and hold large volumes of gas. He built one of the first respirators able to remove toxic gases from the air, paving the way for [[activated carbon|activated charcoal]] to become the most widely used filter for respirators.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Britain|first=Royal Institution of Great|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_tfkAAAAAYAAJ|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_tfkAAAAAYAAJ/page/n63 53]|title=Notices of the Proceedings at the Meetings of the Members of the Royal Institution, with Abstracts of the Discourses|date=1858|publisher=W. Nicol, Printer to the Royal Institution|language=en}}</ref> Irish physicist [[John Tyndall]] took Stenhouse's mask, added a filter of cotton wool saturated with [[calcium hydroxide|lime]], [[glycerin]], and charcoal, and in 1871 invented a 'fireman's respirator', a hood that filtered smoke and gas from air, which he exhibited at a meeting of the [[Royal Society]] in London in 1874.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tyndall|first=John|date=1873|title=On Some Recent Experiments with a Fireman's Respirator|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London|volume=22|pages=359–361|jstor=112853|bibcode=1873RSPS...22R.359T|issn=0370-1662}}</ref> Also in 1874, Samuel Barton patented a device that 'permitted respiration in places where the atmosphere is charged with noxious gases, or vapors, smoke, or other impurities.'<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://67.225.133.110/~gbpprorg/invention/development.html|title=Gas Mask Development (1926)|website=67.225.133.110|access-date=2020-03-27|archive-date=27 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227141330/http://67.225.133.110/~gbpprorg/invention/development.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite patent |country=US |number=148868A |status=patent |title=Respirator |pubdate=1874-03-24 |gdate=1874-03-24 |inventor=Samuel Barton |url=https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search/family/002218281/publication/US148868A?q=US148868A }} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308180749/https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search/family/002218281/publication/US148868A?q=US148868A |date=8 March 2021 }}</ref>

In the 1890s, the German surgeon Johannes Mikulicz began using a "mundbinde" ("mouth bandage") of sterilized cloth as a barrier against microorganisms moving from him to his patients. Along with his surgical assistant Wilhelm Hübener, he adapted a chloroform mask with two layers of cotton mull. Experiments conducted by Hübener showed that the "mouth bandage" or "surgical mask" (German: Operationsmaske, as Hübener called it) blocked bacteria.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lowry |first1=H. C. |title=Some Landmarks in Surgical Technique |journal=The Ulster Medical Journal |year=1947 |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=102–113 |pmid=18898288 |pmc=2479244 }}</ref><ref>Schlich T, Strasser BJ. Making the medical mask: surgery, bacteriology, and the control of infection (1870s–1920s). Medical History. 2022;66(2):116-134. doi:10.1017/mdh.2022.5</ref>

=== 20th century ===
[[File:How a Man may Breath Safely in a Poisonous Atmosphere b10154140 010 tif zw12z649n.tiff|thumb|right| "How a Man may Breathe Safely in a Poisonous Atmosphere", an apparatus providing oxygen while using caustic soda to absorb carbon dioxide, 1909]]
{{excerpt|Wu Lien-teh|Pneumonic plague|only=paragraphs|paragraphs=1-2}}
==== World War I ====
{{excerpt|Gas mask|World War I|only=paragraphs|paragraphs=1-2}}
==== United States ====
{{excerpt|N95 respirator|Early US respirator standards}}

In the 1970s, the successor to the United States Bureau of Mines and NIOSH developed standards for single-use respirators, and the first single-use respirator was developed by [[3M]] and approved in 1972.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/90479846/the-untold-origin-story-of-the-n95-mask|title=The untold origin story of the N95 mask|work=Fast Company |date=24 March 2020 |publisher=Fast Company and Mansueto Ventures, LLC|access-date=9 April 2020|archive-date=19 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519041831/https://www.fastcompany.com/90479846/the-untold-origin-story-of-the-n95-mask|url-status=live |last1=Wilson |first1=Mark }}</ref> 3M used a [[melt blowing]] process that it had developed decades prior and used in products such as ready-made [[ribbon]] bows and [[bra]] cups; its use in a wide array of products had been pioneered by designer [[Sara Little Turnbull]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://designmuseumfoundation.org/ask-why/|title=Ask Why: Sara Little Turnbull|last1=Rees|first1=Paula|last2=Eisenbach|first2=Larry|date=2020|website=Design Museum Foundation|access-date=2020-04-01|df=mdy-all|archive-date=20 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200720125822/https://designmuseumfoundation.org/ask-why/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== 1990s ====
{{excerpt|N95 respirator|Approval of Part 84 and replacement of 30 CFR 11}}

=== 21st century ===
==== Continuing mesothelioma litigation ==== <!-- Excerpted in N95 respirator article -->
{{see also|Toxic tort}}
[[File:30 cfr part11 label.png|thumb|right|upright=0.5|[[30 CFR 11]] label, with asbestos approval]]
[[NIOSH]] certifies [[B Reader]]s, people qualified to testify or provide evidence in [[mesothelioma]] [[personal injury]] lawsuits,<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1644&context=faculty-articles | title=Fraud and Abuse in Mesothelioma Litigation | volume=31 | issue=33 | date=2004 | last1=Brickman | first1=Lester | journal=Tul. L. Rev. | pages=47–48}}</ref> ''in addition to'' regulating respirators. However, since 2000, the increasing scope of claims related to mesothelioma started to include respirator manufacturers to the tune of 325,000 cases, despite the primary use of respirators being to prevent asbestos and silica-related diseases. Most of these cases were not successful, or reached settlements of around $1000 per litigant, well below the cost of mesothelioma treatment.<ref name="rescue" /> 

One reason is due to the fact that respirator manufacturers are not allowed to modify a respirator once it is certified by NIOSH. In one case, a jury ruled against 3M for a respirator that was initially approved for asbestos, but was quickly disapproved once [[OSHA]] permissible exposure limits for asbestos changed. Combined with testimony that the plaintiff ''rarely'' wore a respirator around asbestos, the lack of evidence, and the limitation of liability from static NIOSH approval, the case was overturned.<ref name="rescue">{{cite journal | first1=Victor E. | last1=Schwartz | first2=Cary | last2=Silverman | first3=Christopher E. | last3=Appel. | title=Respirators to the Rescue: Why Tort Law Should Encourage, Not Deter, the Manufacture of Products that Make Us Safer. | journal=Am. J. Trial Advoc. | volume=33 | issue=13 | date=2009 | url=https://www.shb.com/-/media/files/professionals/s/silvermancary/respiratorstotherescue.pdf |pages=48–51}}</ref>

Nonetheless, the costs of litigation reduced the margins for respirators, which was blamed for supply shortages for N95 respirators for anticipated pandemics, like [[avian influenza]], during the 2000s.<ref name="rescue" />

==== 2020 ====
China normally makes 10 million masks<!-- or [[dust mask]]s or [[surgical mask]]s--> per day, about half of the world production. During the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], 2,500 factories were converted <!--BYD, CIAG, Foxconn etc.--> to produce 116 million daily<!--still too few-->.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/science-health_coronavirus-outbreak_world-depends-china-face-masks-can-country-deliver/6186071.html|title=World Depends on China for Face Masks But Can Country Deliver?|last1=Xie|first1=John|date=19 March 2020|website=Voice of America|publisher=[[Voice of America]]|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200321094219/https://www.voanews.com/science-health/coronavirus-outbreak/world-depends-china-face-masks-can-country-deliver|archive-date=21 March 2020}}</ref>

During the COVID-19 pandemic, people in the United States, and in a lot of countries in the world, were urged to make their own cloth masks due to the widespread shortage of commercial masks.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dwyer |first=Colin |date=April 3, 2020 |title=CDC Now Recommends Americans Consider Wearing Cloth Face Coverings In Public |website=[[NPR]] |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/03/826219824/president-trump-says-cdc-now-recommends-americans-wear-cloth-masks-in-public}}</ref>

==== 2024 ====
{{see also|2020–2025 H5N1 outbreak}}
{{excerpt|N95 respirator|Among dairy workers|hat=no}}

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