Because end-of-service-life-indicators are limited for organic vapors respirator cartridges, mathematical models are recommended to yield the cartridge service life (CSL) to protect workers from breathing toxic vapors. The existing prediction models lack accurate experimental data and do not consider the breakthrough vapor toxicity.  This thesis aims to optimize predictive models by: (1) developing an approach to characterize the pore structure of activated carbons of respirator cartridges using organic vapors; (2) designing a miniaturize (Mini) cartridge device easy to control environmental conditions and provide reliable data similar to a full size respirator cartridge by reducing the amount of solvent used; and (3) integrating a toxicological approach in the estimation CSL by using the Hazard Index (HI).  The results showed: (1) that organic vapors can be used to characterize the pore structure of activated carbon; (2) the Mini device was able to reproduce breakthrough curves of the full size cartridge and gave comparable results to the 10% breakthrough times and adsorption capacities of the cartridges; and (3) the HI as a function of the breakthrough concentration allowed the characterization of the risk exposure to chemical mixtures and was able to predict the CSL for the safe use of respirators.

Option : Toxicologie et analyse du risque

Le vendredi 25 août

À 13h30 au local 3019 au Pavillon 7101 avenue du Parc

Membres du jury :

Jérôme Lavoué, Président-rapporteur   

Lara Jaime, Directeur de recherche

Sami Haddad, Codirecteur de recherche

Michel Gérin, Membre du jury  

Simon Smith, Examinateur externe

Michel Lafleur, Représentant du doyen