China has postponed the implementation
of its new mandatory standard for “Respiratory Protection – Non-Powered
Air-Purifying Particle Respirator” – GB 2626-2019.
GB 2626-2019 was originally included in China’s No.
17 announcement of approved national standards in 2019. It was scheduled to
come into effect on July 1, 2020, but, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this
has now been delayed until July 1, 2021. The Standardization Administration of China (SAC) made this announcement on
June 11, 2020, in 2020 No. 29 Public Notice.
With the transition period
now extended until July 2021, manufacturers and suppliers are free to continue
selecting either the previous standard, GB 2626-2006,
or GB 2626-2019 as their executive standard.
GB
2626-2019 applies to non-powered air-purifying respirators, which provide some
form of respirator protection against particles. It does not apply to
respirators for:
- Protection
against harmful gases and vapor - Use in hypoxic environments, underwater operations, escape and firefighting
The standard
contains a number of provisions, including general requirements, appearance
checks, filter efficiency, inward leakage performance, respiratory resistance,
exhalation valve, dead space, visual field, head harness, connection and
connecting parts, lens, air tightness, flammability, cleaning and disinfecting,
practical performance, information provided by manufacturer, and packaging.
Classification
in the new standard is based on the facepiece and filter element. The facepiece
can be either disposable, replaceable half, or full. The
filter element is based on, firstly, the type of particle it will filter:
- Category
KN – only used to filter non-oily particles - Category KP – filter both oily and non-oily particles
The second
element is the efficiency – 90, 95 or 100. This means the following respirators
are categorized in the standard according to type, what it filters, and
efficiency:
Category KN
- Disposable facepiece – KN90, KN95, KN100
- Replaceable half facepiece – KN90, KN95, KN100
- Full facepiece – KN95, KN100
Category
KP:
- Disposable facepiece – KP90, KP95, KP100
- Replaceable half facepiece – KP90, KP95, KP100
- Full facepiece – KP95, KP100
Under
the new mandatory standard, the filter element of a disposable facepiece or
replaceable facepiece must be marked for its class in accordance with the code
specified in this standard. For example, the filter element of KP100 must be
marked as GB 2626-2019 KP100.
GB
2626-2019 contains several technical differences to GB 2626-2006 and
stakeholders are advised to now check and begin/complete transition to the new
standard.
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