Self-Rescue Respirator

**Carbon monoxide** is one of the hazards which the coal miners might encounter. This gas is created during the incomplete combustion of carbonaceous material. Carbon monoxide is flammable, explosive and poisonous. **Self-Rescue Respirator** were used by rescue teams to be able to breathe in oxygen and protect themselves from carbon monoxide while saving miners from the underground. The respirator consists of a small oxygen tank and a rubber mouth piece to protect a nose and a mouth. To put a respirator, one should break a red strap and put the respirator on the face. With this respirator a person could survive up to 20 – 30 minutes in the area with an unsafe atmosphere (gases, poisoned air). Respirators like this were used from 1950 until 1970s, when the coal mines in Limburg were shut. The original can be found in the Dutch Mining Museum (Nederlands Mijnmuseum) in Heerlen (NL). Created by: Anna Ivanova