Not actually pulled out the bank card and typed in my details yet, since I am still looking for the best possible price, but I'm after buying one of these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-in-1-Function-Supplied-Air-Fed-Respirator-Kit-System-6200-Half-Face-Gas-Mask-/282510307582Been wanting one for a while now, a full-face gas mask that rather than taking cartridges, uses a remotely-positioned air compressor to supply breathable air and keep the mask at positive pressure, so nothing noxious can enter. They don't need cartridges for different kinds of toxic gases, fumes etc. and I already have a medical-grade air compressor that I happened to pick up for just £5 at a pet store after somebody traded it in for store credit but the owner later found it vibrates too much for fish to be comfortable with so, the owner realizing my....somewhat atypical requirements, for his produce, from my for ex. buying out every last package of sulfur, bottle of formaldehyde, and going in with a couple of different condensers, to test the fit against different sizes of his plastic tubing on the hose barbs, and my nosing around looking for the most powerful water (or rather, meant to be water) pumps that he had to sell, walking out with a variety of the above, different sizes of tubing in huge rolls, from a few mm to about an inch wide, and that I have to frequently replace the tubing after something attacks and eats it, he realized that unlike probably any other customer he might ever get, I'd be the one and possibly only, person who would benefit from that ex-hospital air compressor.
Positive pressure gas masks are used for working with the worst of the worst, basically, since the interior of the mask is pressurized to a higher pressure than the external atmosphere, it actively pushes away any gases, fumes etc and prevents them entering and one getting gassed. I've already got two gas masks, one with limited replacement cartridges and only for organic vapors and gases, but once the canisters are used, its for the bin, since the replacement canisters are no longer made for that model. The new one I got takes the more useful and wide-ranging ABEK-1 plus added dust and particulate filter pads over the top, the ABEK-1 cartridges are suitable for both organic gases/vapors (such as solvents), acid gases and alkaline fumes like ammonia, methylamine, ethylamine, pyridine fumes, and low boiling/noxiously fuming basic liquids/gases in general. Still, it isn't enough, I need something thats suitable for working with the worst of the worst (although I have limits, its not like I'm going to work with say, methylmercury or chlorine trifluoride, no matter WHAT kind of protection is available(the mask wouldn't give the slightest protection against ClF3, since its such a powerful oxidizer even a diluted stream of chlorine trifluoride gas will actually cause a house brick to burst into flames. Yes, thats right. Its hypergolic with a fucking BRICK!!), but something that'll protect me against anything from oxidizing, poisonous, acidic, highly corrosive substances like say, chromyl chloride, iodine monochloride, iodine trichloride, bromine monochloride, elemental bromine itself, chlorine gas, which I certainly use enough of to make me damn glad of my ABEK-1 filter mask.
But, I need something better. Something that can be worn with a military-spec NBC suit. Not that I've any intention of working with chemical weapons, bioweapons etc. but some of the things I come across or get used in various experiments really, really aren't very people-friendly. And it doesn't have to have been dropped on some poor lot of army grunts in a WWI/WWII trench, to have the same end effect. I.e one deceased chemist. And I've no intention of allowing that to happen.
But it has its limits. Its a half-face mask that needs to be used with goggles and a flip-down blast shield and doesn't protect the skin it doesn't cover.
