On the works for reconstruction asbestos-containing building or removing this dangerous mineral from other objects PPE units are often used. These are personal protective equipment that helps to minimize the effects of asbestos exposure on health, acting as a barrier between the body and asbestos dust. There are two main types of PPE used for such works: protective suits and respirators.

Protective suits help to prevent asbestos dust from getting into underclothing and skin of people who contact with it. In order to isolate the body from mineral dust a hooded suit with foot and wrist bands must be used. This is a reliable protection from asbestos-containing sprays and particles flying in the air around. It is highly important to use protective suits with proper aeration and antistatic cover; the materials should be soft to skin and comfortable to wear. Depending on weather conditions, the materials also vary.

The protective suit can be worn directly on underwear or above the work clothes. The first variant is allowed only if a worker deals with weakly-bound asbestos compounds. If worker is busy with asbestos cement demolition or other works of such kind, there must be work clothes under the protective suit in order to provide better isolation to skin.

There are protective suits for a single use or multiple uses. Single-use suit is designed for being used during one shift with further disposal. Multiple-use suits are used for big scopes of work when using single-use suits is not financially reasonable. Before each use a worker must get sure that the suit is cleaned properly. For proper asbestos dust utilization there must be proper facilities for cleaning the suits.

Another measure to eliminate the effects of asbestos exposure is using respiratory protection. This measure is usually stressful for workers as it complicates breathing, hard to wear during the long time and significantly decreases the comfort of work. There can be two types of respiratory protection: breathing apparatus and respirators. The first one are functioning in any conditions, regardless of what pollutant is in the air, while respirators just filter specific pollutants, giving ability to inhale clean air. The effect of respirator and kinds of filtered pollutants depend on the filters installed inside. This is a targeted protection from specific agents. Respirators can be used only if the amount of oxygen in the air is 17% or more. They should not be used in the conditions when the composition of the air is unknown.

For asbestos-related works only respirators are used in most cases. They also have their own classification. The first type is respirators that have replaceable filters, and the second one is with non-replaceable filters inside. Some respirators are also equipped with ventilator. There are a lot of different subtypes, e.g. full rubber face masks or half face masks. The non-replaceable filter respirators usually have half-mask construction. They fully consist of filter material and usually are called FFP masks. Sometimes they are equipped with exhalation valve that reduce the resistance when breathing. Such masks are single-use, and are disposed after one shift of use. However, even the masks with replaceable filters require changing filters each shift. The filters are also changed when it becomes hard to breathe due to saturation of the filter. The particle filters are marked as “P1”, “P2”, “P3” depending on the capacity. P1 type is not suitable for working with asbestos.