Mobile app From 3M helps occupational health and safety professionals select respiratory protection for faster and easier decision making

With busy schedules and a myriad of job demands every day, there is precious little time to pore through reference materials to find the right respirator to protect worker health and safety. That is one of the reasons 3M developed a new mobile application that serves as a respiratory one-stop shop for industrial hygienists and safety professionals who want information via iOS devices.

Using the free app, industrial hygienists and safety professionals can quickly get answers to frequently asked respiratory questions, check the 3M respirator selection guide, identify 3M facepieces, cartridges and filters, walk through an overview of qualitative fit-testing protocols, and conduct fit tests.

“According to a recent survey conducted by 3M, more than 72 percent of industrial hygienists and safety managers use professional mobile apps on the job,” said Nicole Vars McCullough, PhD, CIH, global technical services manager, 3M Occupational Health & Environmental Safety. “Our goal is to help simplify health and safety professional’s decisions around respiratory protection – and with all the things a mobile app can do for them – we’re a step closer to doing just that.”

In the past, health and safety professionals used several reference sources to match a chemical exposure with a respirator, a tedious process due to the variety of environmental conditions that must be considered. But with the new mobile app from 3M, users simply enter the chemical name and the app gives recommendations for the appropriate type of respiratory protection for the contaminant. Rapid selection is just the tip of the iceberg, as the app also serves as a product catalog, a fit-testing guide, and a frequently asked question section.

The respiratory app for iOS devices is currently available and will be offered for Android-enabled mobile devices in December. Along with the new app, 3M recently launched a mobile version of its safety website to help industrial hygienists and safety managers have broader access to information on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Safety Solutions.

About 3M

3M captures the spark of new ideas and transforms them into thousands of ingenious products. Our culture of creative collaboration inspires a never-ending stream of powerful technologies that make life better. 3M is the innovation company that never stops inventing. With $30 billion in sales, 3M employs about 84,000 people worldwide and has operations in more than 65 countries. For more information, visit www.3M.com or follow @3MNews on Twitter.

About 3M Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Safety Solutions

3M offers a comprehensive, diverse portfolio of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) solutions providing respiratory protection, hearing protection, fall protection, reflective materials for high visibility, protective clothing, protective eyewear, head and face protection, welding helmets, and other adjacent products and solutions such as tactical safety equipment, detection, monitoring equipment, active communications equipment and compliance management. In 2012, 3M celebrates 40 years of safety leadership – recognizing the company’s respiratory and hearing protection solutions introduced in 1972. Visit www.3M.com/PPESafety or http://m.3m.com/PPESafety