Get U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service Form 3-2365. Qualitative Fit Test (QLFT) Form - Fws

The main difference between the two is that a QLFT relies on a person's sense of smell or taste to determine the fit, while a QNFT test measures the actual difference in particles in the test atmosphere versus that inside the wearer's mask to determine its fitness in a particular environment.

Qualitative fit testing is a pass/fail method used on half-masks that relies on senses - such as taste and smell - to detect air leakage from your respirator. The half masks being tested much have an overall fit factor (mask particle concentration divided by the ambient particle concentration) of 100 or less.

Qualitative fit testing is a pass/fail method used on half-masks that relies on senses - such as taste and smell - to detect air leakage from your respirator. The half masks being tested much have an overall fit factor (mask particle concentration divided by the ambient particle concentration) of 100 or less.

Quantitative fit testing (QNFT) is another type of mask fit testing used to determine whether a respirator properly fits an employee. This test objectively measures leakage amount (quantity) using a specific machine or software that calculates the measurements. It does not rely on human taste.

There are two types of fit tests: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative fit testing is a pass/fail test method that uses your sense of taste or smell, or your reaction to an irritant in order to detect leakage into the respirator facepiece. Qualitative fit testing does not measure the actual amount of leakage.

Quantitative fit-testing may be used for any tight-fitting facepiece respirator. It must be used when fit-testing a full-facepiece negative-pressure respirator to obtain its assigned protection factor of 50 and allow it to be used in environments up to 50 times the PEL.

The main difference between quantitative mask fit testing and qualitative mask fit testing is that quantitative testing objectively measures the amount of leakage (quantity) while qualitative testing relies subjectively on the users taste and smell to detect leakage.

The main difference between the two is that a QLFT relies on a person's sense of smell or taste to determine the fit, while a QNFT test measures the actual difference in particles in the test atmosphere versus that inside the wearer's mask to determine its fitness in a particular environment.