Subject Area:	Engineering
More specific subject area:	Occupational health and safety requirements - Respiratory protection program Standards - Fit Testing Procedures
Protocol name:	Efficacy of homemade fit solutions as qualitative challenge agents for fit testing of filtering face-piece respirators (FFRs).
Reagents/tools:	Moldex® Bitrex® Fit Test Kit Part number 0102 (Moldex Co., Culver, Calif.), Allegro® Saccharin Qualitative Fit test Kit Part Number 2040 (Allegro Industries, Paramount, Calif.), Denatonium benzoate)Merck Co., Germany), Sodium saccharin (USP, Sigma-Aldrich Co., USA), Agilent Cary 60 spectrophotometer (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, USA), Blood Agar (Merck Co., Germany), Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (Merck Co., Germany), Chloramphenicol (Sigma-Aldrich Co., Canada).
Experimental design:	The commercial and homemade threshold test solutions were prepared according to the OSHA fit test protocol 29 CFR 1910.134. In order to ensure the commercial and homemade solutions would be stable (color, clarity, and not construction of unstable colloids), the chemical parameters (optical molecular spectra) of those solutions were examined on a regular basis using a Spectrophotometer at 25 °C in the wavelength range of 200–800 nm. In order to ensure the commercial and homemade solutions would be safe, the microbial parameters of those solutions were assessed by performing the Blood Agar and Sabouraud Dextrose Agar tests.
Trial registration:	Not applicable
Ethics	Research Ethics Committee of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences: Approval code IR.SUMS.REC.1396.191