EMB145 captain reports that a white haze forms on the smoke masks of all the company aircraft equipp...

Narrative:

During the cruise portion of the flight the first officer requested to use the restroom. I began (altitude above 25;000 ft) to deploy my mask and noticed that the lenses were obscured by some type of white haze. The haze was so bad it was impossible to see through the lenses of the smoke goggles. I attempted to clean the goggle with water and a napkin and was able after a minute or two to remove some of the haze. This has been an ongoing problem with the aircraft that come equipped with the puritan smoke mask. I have completed safety forms and spoke with management and maintenance on several occasions. I have even provided pictures of mask with this obscuration. The last time I brought it up I was assured it would be taken care of. This continues to occur because of a lack of preventive maintenance. If there was ever an event that required relying on one of these obscured masks in a smoke type emergency; I believe that the outcome wouldn't be good. These masks need to be checked by maintenance on a regular basis with the mechanic doing the inspection recording it in the log book.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB145 Captain reports that a white haze forms on the smoke masks of all the company aircraft equipped with the Puritan mask. This haze forms in a couple of days and requires regular maintenance which is not being done.

Narrative: During the cruise portion of the flight the First Officer requested to use the restroom. I began (altitude above 25;000 FT) to deploy my mask and noticed that the lenses were obscured by some type of white haze. The haze was so bad it was impossible to see through the lenses of the smoke goggles. I attempted to clean the goggle with water and a napkin and was able after a minute or two to remove some of the haze. This has been an ongoing problem with the aircraft that come equipped with the Puritan smoke mask. I have completed safety forms and spoke with management and maintenance on several occasions. I have even provided pictures of mask with this obscuration. The last time I brought it up I was assured it would be taken care of. This continues to occur because of a lack of preventive maintenance. If there was ever an event that required relying on one of these obscured masks in a smoke type emergency; I believe that the outcome wouldn't be good. These masks need to be checked by maintenance on a regular basis with the Mechanic doing the inspection recording it in the log book.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	869576
Time
Date	200912
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Dawn
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	EMB ERJ 145 ER&LR
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Oxygen System/Crew
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

EMB145 captain reports that a white haze forms on the smoke masks of all the company aircraft equipped with the puritan mask. This haze forms in a couple of days and requires regular maintenance which is not being done.