Masks / fumes / smoke / getting dizzy

It's possible I'll be doing a large bunch of fire shows soon, all in a short period of time. Naturally, I am concerned regarding the inhallation of fumes.
I have done searches & found several instances where people have had lung trouble... but no preventative measures.

We were thinking along the lines of wearing a mask of some description to filter out the smoke - like a sars mask/surgical mask etc, but incorporating it into a bandanna or even a 'show mask' that we can wear as part of a costume, but has a dual purpose of filtering out the harmful smoky molecules in the air.

Has anyone done this before & have any design ideas? Maybe even a normal material that filters out smoke that can be made into a mask>

thanks for any help people!

how many shows??
when I first got my fire poi I did like 3 burns a night for a week or two, and I used paraffin (the non-smoke one, with the lemon insect repeller) and nothing happened...

Dunno bout Draghkyre's case but most performers who do lots of shows are performing for between 30 - 60 mins per show and around 5 - 6 shows daily. Not to mention there are often more than 1 performer spinning at once. Could be indoors also. This is, of course, much different than spinning 3 times per day outside.

As for the question at hand, I dont know that any fabric will filter fumes very well. You may need a true gas mask to have any real benefits.but those too can be implemented into costumes and/or incorporated into a bigger mask.

D - Look up Respro masks - their designed to take out nasty city fumes but also look ok as they're designed for vain mountain bikers... you can get different stlyes from red poker-dot bandanas to urban black masky type things.

www.respro.com

The shows that Ðraghkyre and I may be doing could last for 3 months and require us to do 3hrs give or take an hour of burning per night. These will mainly be indoor performances. We are looking for a mask that removes all kerosene smoke and any kerosene vapours/droplets.

Those masks are great. Have anyone here used them for firestuff??

Burning Byron - Take a look at that website if you look at the masks and then click the images for more info they actually tell you that they do filter out some if not more of the following:

Filters Out:
Sub-Micron Particulates including Pollen Dust, Rape Seed Dust, Irritant Dusts, Clay Dust, Black Smoke and Diesel Particulates.

I typed in chemical face masks into Google and found this site. Hmmmmmmmm not sure about these but thought I'd show you anyway

I wrote to Respro asking which they'd recommend. They suggested the Techno mask.

Have any of these masks been tested for how they react to heat?

It would be a shame to try and protect yourself, but end with with a melted mask on your face if it gets hit, or if the mask itself gives off worse toxic fumes than the fuel.

Hopefully Respro have done some testing this area?

Presumably they have for the fire-fighters masks... the others seem to be made of neoprene and plastic.

The Fire-Fighters (FB-1) masks state: Made from flame resistant neoprene.
I would assume that all the other Neoprene therefore isn't flame resistant...
melted plastic on face anyone?

It also seems possible that you can change filters between masks. i.e. put a techno mask filter in a fire fighter's (FB-1) mask...

sounds good, but would cost a lil bit extra.

Hmmm - but then I've never hit myself in the face before, especially not for long enough to melt neoprene - it's not like they're made from shell-suits, neoprene isn't that flammable is it?

I have however breathed in lots of smoke

So personally, I think it'd be worth the risk from a health point of view.