As for the filter cartridge...What do you think of this?
https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/v000075262/
When they say "certain gases or organic vapors" will it stop paint fumes, epoxy fumes, thinner fumes, etc., etc as expected when doing some diy home repair?
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Pretty color, very festive.
At the risk of putting my butt in a sling, it should work just fine for painting solvents and most painting fumes. Unsure it's suitable for ammonia, acid fumes, CO, poisonous gasses (cyanide comes to mind).
As the filter reaches capacity, many people say it starts to smell like vinegar. Pre-filters should come in a multi pack, they only filter dust and particulates. You'll know when they plug up.
I worked with epoxy for a number of years, unmasked, never noticed anything. Others will get a reaction, or rash, after an arbitrary amount of time. The reaction generally goes away once out of the epoxy environment. The allergy is cumulative, it abates, but will come back quicker and stronger. Wear a mask.
Rick
Edit to add. I'm not a doctor, especially yours. If you get asthma from fumes, consider a full face. The eyes are a semi-open pipeline, think cutting onions or entering an elevator just after someone cut the Limburger. Contact lenses mixed with hot pepper juice on fingers is a winner too.
But wait, there's more! Appears the festive filter above is a package unit, organic vapers AND a particulate filter. May be a liability issue, 3M has been sued more than once. No biggie I guess, but if you only need particulate filtering, need to buy a filter specific to that. My antique Binks has screw in carbon filters with a loose non woven particulate filter that is retained with a snap on cap. For just particulate, I grab an N95 or med mask.
