We're not going to cover CNP machines in this thread, since they don't work with N95s.

(If you don't know what CNP is, it's basically any portable fit testing machine that's not a PortaCount or AccuFit 9000, which is probably not you.)

OSHA

The OSHA protocols generally call for 8 exercises, each 40 seconds long in terms of mask sampling on a CPC, with each exercise lasting 1 minute total. The exercise actions are:

1. Normal Breathing
2. Deep Breathing
3. Head Side to Side
4. Head Up and Down
5. Talking (use rainbow passage, or count)
6. Grimace
7. Bending
8. Normal Breathing

Normally, OSHA excludes grimace and only makes the exercise last 15 seconds, causing massive headaches for fit testers without computers, as proctors have to recalculate the overall fit factor, and ignore what the PortaCount says, but for modified OSHA, grimace is included as a 1 minute exercise, so no recalculation is necessary. Just take the overall fit factor put out by the PortaCount.

*Modified OSHA

TSI has a helpful guide on the actual, classic OSHA compliant fit test protocol. Technically, these old guidelines have been superseded in 2019, however for our purposes, we're just going to ignore them.

The OSHA protocols generally call for 8 exercises, each 40 seconds long in terms of mask sampling on a CPC, with each exercise lasting 1 minute total. The exercise actions are:

1. Normal Breathing
2. Deep Breathing
3. Head Side to Side
4. Head Up and Down
5. Talking (use rainbow passage, or count)
6. Grimace
7. Bending
8. Normal Breathing

Normally, OSHA excludes grimace and only makes the exercise last 15 seconds, causing massive headaches for fit testers without computers, as proctors have to recalculate the overall fit factor, and ignore what the PortaCount says, but for modified OSHA, grimace is included as a 1 minute exercise, so no recalculation is necessary. Just take the overall fit factor put out by the PortaCount.

General CPC Settings

For all exercises described in this thread, these are the general timings for a CPC machine:

Calculating the "Overall Fit Factor"

The overall fit factor is basically the harmonic mean of all exercise fit factors.

Crash 2.5

The timings for each exercise are the same as above (40 seconds mask sampling) but replace each exercise action with:

1. Normal Breathing
2. Jaw Rotation
3. Normal Breathing
4. Normal Breathing
5. Jaw Rotation
6. Normal Breathing
7. Normal Breathing
8. Jaw Rotation
9. Normal Breathing
10. Normal Breathing
11. Jaw Rotation
12. Normal Breathing

For each Jaw Rotation, rotate your jaw, slowly, at least 2 times, each exercise action during the protocol.

To add additional exercises to a PortaCount 8020, hold the "No. of Exercises" button, until the number of exercises reaches 12.

Crash UM

This is essentially an abridged version of Crash 2.5:

1. Normal Breathing
2. Talking (use rainbow passage, or count)
3. Normal Breathing
4. Normal Breathing
5. Talking
6. Normal Breathing

N95 Mode CPC Settings

Not relevant for 8020 (original) or 8020M users In N95 mode, particles have to go through a charged particle separator, increasing the amount of tubing required. Given this, if you perform an N95 mode test, these are the timings you should use:

"Redon"

This exercise is borrowed from CNP machines. We said we weren't going to cover CNP protocols, and, well, we aren't, but as an individual exercise, redon can be quite useful for making sure your N95 straps stay intact across multiple wears. We don't have any consensus protocols yet involving Redon, but if you want to add add a redon exercise to your custom CPC exercise protocol, here are some things to be aware of:

• You need to add an excluded exercise, like "grimace" in classic OSHA. Try to make this excluded exercise as long as possible.
• You'll also need to add a standard "normal breathing" exercise immediately afterwards for consistent fit factor measurements.
• To summarize, if the time for a normal exercise is 1 minute, the time for a complete redon exercise will be 2 minutes, spread across 2 exercises involving excluded "redon" and a "normal breathing" measurement.

Notes:

• DO NOT USE IRRITANT SMOKE NEXT TO A PORTACOUNT.