Expert: Profile Closed - 12/23/2009

Question
  Well you can be assured this is not a homework question, but I was wondering; I need a respirator or gasmask for the paints and various hazardous art projects, would it be safe for me to use a Finnish M61 Gas Mask & Filter Original from WWII, or would that be unsafe. Is there any WWII gas masks that can still be used today. Thanks for your help!

Answer
Hi There, and thanks for your question; apologies for the "homework" rider on my profile, but we do get a lot of homework questions!

I was particularly interested in your question because of my own background research in to World War 2 chemical protection. However, I have to say that sadly there are no conditions under which the use of such respirators could be recommended today, for two main reasons:

1) The technology available at the time relied on a variety of materials for the filter bed of the mask (the part where the adsorbing chemicals sit). All nationalities used a variety of materials, and most model numbers of mask include at least some masks that used asbestos as the filter-bed. After a delay of 60 years, the asbestos will have cracked and turned in to fibres; not the sort of thing you want to be inhaling! As, at the time, the dangers of asbestos were not known, it's not accurately recorded which models used asbestos, and most museums therefore take the precaution of banning the wearing of such masks: see http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1988/dec/22/asbestos-gas-mask...

2) The charcoal-based filters from World War 2 masks are not designed to cope with the huge range of modern toxic vapors that simply didn't exist back then; the organic solvents of today are very different from the simple war gases like phosgene and chlorine. Also, the masks were designed for emergency, one-off use before having the filter replaced, not continuous mid-level exposure to solvent vapors.

Add to these reasons the fact that the canisters will probably not be at their freshest, and overall, the use of a WW 11 gas mask would be at least as dangerous as inhaling the fumes.

As you realize, some form of protection is essential; I would recommend contacting a supply company (e.g. 3M), with the name of the chemicals in use, and ask for their advice as to the sort of protection required. www.3m.com is their website.

Hope that this helps; in summary, you do need respiratory protection, but a ww 11 gas mask is going to be at least totally ineffective, if not actually dangerous.

Hope that helps, please do let me know if you have any follow-up questions.