Filtering Respiratory Protective Devices (FRPD) is not typically evaluated for exposure to volatile compounds, even though they significantly affect their protective performance. Such compounds are released into the atmosphere by industrial processes and pose serious health risks in people inhaling them. The adsorbent materials currently used to prevent those risks include activated carbon (AC). Zeolites and mesoporous silica materials (MCM) are very popular among the sorption materials. Due to their physical and chemical properties, they are able to adsorb significant amounts of volatile compounds from air. The melt-blown technology was used to produce filtering nonwovens with modifiers. As a result, polymer nonwoven structures with modifiers in the form of AC, zeolite (NaP1 type), molecular sieves (SM, SM 4Å) and mesoporous silica materials (MCM-41) were produced. The use of ACs (AC1 from Zgoda and AC2 from Pleisch) and their mixtures with others modifiers allowed to obtain satisfactory sorption, protective and utility properties. The longest breakthrough time against cyclohexane (approx. 53 min) was afforded by a variant containing AC, against ammonia (approx. 12 min) for the variant with AC2 and a mixture of AC2 and MCM-41. In the case of acetone vapor satisfactory breakthrough times were found for the variants with AC2 and AC1+SM (~20–25 min.). The present work deals with scientific research to improve workers’ and society’s health and safety by pursuing a better working life, and creating a safe social environment.

Air quality in Warsaw is mainly affected by two classes of internal polluting sources: transportation and municipal sector emissions, apart from external pollution inflow. Warsaw authorities prepared strategies of mitigating emissions coming from both these sectors. In this study we analyze effects of the implementation of these strategies by modeling air pollution in Warsaw using several mitigation scenarios. The applied model, operating on a homogeneous discretization grid, forecasts the annual average concentrations of individual pollutants and the related population health risk. The results reveal that the measures planned by the authorities will cause almost 50% reduction of the residents’ exposure to NOx pollution and almost 23% reduction of the exposure to CO pollution due to the transport emissions, while the residents’ exposure reductions due to the municipal sector are 10% for PM10, 15% for PM2.5, and 26% for BaP. The relatively smaller reductions due to municipal sector are connected with high transboundary inflow of pollutants (38% for PM10, 45% for PM2.5, 36% for BaP, and 45% for CO). The implementation of the discussed strategies will reduce the annual mean concentrations of NOx and PM2.5 below the limits of the Ambient Air Quality Directive. Despite the lower exposure reduction, the abatement of municipal sector emissions results in a very significant reduction in health risks, in particular, in the attributable mortality and the DALY index. This is due to the dominant share of municipal pollution (PM2.5 in particular) in the related health effects.