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This material is for training purposes only. Its purpose is to inform employers and employees of best practices in occupational safety and health and general OSHA compliance requirements. This material is not a substitute for any provision of the Occupational Safety and Health Act or any standards issued by OSHA.
 MODULE 4: RESPIRATORY PROTECTION
Introduction
Black lung, farmer’s lung, asbestosis, silicosis ... You’ve probably heard of these work-related respiratory diseases and know of their consequences. These are just a few of the medical conditions that result when workers breathe contaminated air. Protecting workers can be difficult, however, because there are so many types of contaminants and there is no single method for controlling them in all workplaces.
Your workplace, like most, may contain one or more of the following hazards in the form of harmful:
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dusts
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fogs
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fumes
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mists
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gases
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smokes
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sprays
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vapors
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If hazardous atmospheres generated by any of the above, it must be controlled to prevent disease to workers. What makes a substance harmful depends on its toxicity, chemical state, physical form, concentration, and the period of time one is exposed. Examples include particulates, gases and vapors, and biological organisms. Harmful effects are wide ranging and may occur immediately or take years to develop.
When the oxygen concentration in normal breathing air drops below 19.5 percent by volume, the air becomes oxygen deficient — a significant concern for those who work in confined spaces. Harmful effects include impaired thinking and coordination, unconsciousness, and death.
First Priority - Engineer it out
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OSHA standards mandate that employers use engineering control measures as far as feasible to control occupational diseases caused by breathing contaminated air in their workplaces. Engineering control strategies attempt to eliminate or reduce workplace hazards by redesigning or substituting machinery, equipment, tools, and materials. |
Examples of acceptable engineering controls to eliminate or reduce atmospheric hazards include:
- Enclosure or confinement of the operation,
- General and local ventilation, and
- Substitution of less toxic materials
It's important to know that when effective engineering controls are not feasible, or while they are being instituted, the employer must provide appropriate respirators to protect the health of the employee, and establish and maintain an effective respiratory protective program. And, the employee must use respiratory protection according to their employer's instructions and training.
Respiratory Protection Program Requirements
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The
employer must develop and implement a written respiratory protection
program with required worksite-specific procedures and elements for
required respirator use. The program must be administered by a suitably
trained program administrator. In addition, certain program elements
may be required for voluntary use to prevent potential hazards
associated with the use of the respirator.
OSHA's CPL 2-2.54 - Respiratory Protection Program Manual will give you insight into the OSHA inspection protocol for respiratory protection. Design your own audits with these strategies in mind.
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You can't just hand out respirators and expect employees to use them properly. If respirators are necessary to protect your employees, you must have a written program that describes how you will accomplish the following:
- Select appropriate respirators for employees.
- Conduct medical evaluations for employees who use respirators.
- Fit-test employees who use tight-fitting respirators.
- Ensure employees use respirators correctly during regular activities and during emergencies.
- Ensure respirators are clean and properly maintained.
- Ensure air-quality in atmosphere-supplying respirators.
- Train employees to protect themselves from respiratory hazards.
- Evaluate your program’s effectiveness.
These are the critical elements of a respiratory protection program; an effective program ensures that employees are medically able to use respirators, that their respirators fit properly, and that they know how to use and care for them.
Inspection requirements
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Respiratory protection is no better than the respirator in use, even though it is worn correctly. Frequent random inspections must be conducted by a qualified individual to assure that respirators are properly selected, used, cleaned, and maintained. |
Inspecting respirators.
Follow these important points when inspecting respirators.
- Inspect respirators that are used routinely during cleaning.
- Replace any worn or deteriorated parts.
- Be sure to thoroughly inspect respirators for emergency use such as self-contained devices at least once a month and after each use.
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Does this work practice raise questions? |
- Inspect self-contained breathing apparatus monthly.
- Make sure air and oxygen cylinders are fully charged according to the manufacturer's instructions.
- Make sure that the regulator and warning devices function properly.
- Check the tightness of connections and the condition of the facepiece, headbands, valves, connecting tube, and canisters.
- Inspect rubber or elastomer parts for pliability and signs of deterioration.
- Stretch and manipulate rubber or elastomer parts with a massaging action will keep them pliable and flexible and prevent them from taking a set during storage.
- A record must be kept of inspection dates and findings for respirators maintained for emergency use.
Inspecting the work area. Make sure appropriate surveillance of work area conditions and degree of employee exposure or stress is conducted.
Inspecting the program. Regularly inspect and evaluate the program to determine its continued effectiveness.
Training
For an effective respirator program, it's essential that supervisors and workers be properly instructed by a competent person in:
- Selecting appropriate protection
- Donning and doffing
- Using respirators
- Storing and maintaining respirators
- Detecting defects
- Proper fitting
- Testing for proper seal
In your initial and annual respirator training, be sure to include both an educational component and a training component. The educational component increases the learner's understanding of the importance of using respirators. The training component establishes or improves the skills needed to use the respirator.
Make sure students wear the respirator in normal air for a long familiarity period, and then in a test atmosphere.
Selecting respirators
It's important to select and provide an appropriate respirator based on the respiratory hazard(s) to which the worker is exposed and workplace and user factors that affect respirator performance and reliability. The employer must select a NIOSH-certified respirator. The respirator must be used in compliance with the conditions of its
certification.
The employer must identify and evaluate the respiratory hazard(s) in the workplace; this evaluation must include a reasonable
estimate of employee exposures to respiratory hazard(s) and an identification of the contaminant's chemical state and physical form. Where the employer cannot identify or reasonably estimate the employee exposure, the employer must consider the atmosphere to be immediately dangerous to life and health (IDLH). Immediately dangerous to life or health means an atmosphere that poses an immediate threat to life, would cause irreversible adverse health effects, or would impair an individual's ability to escape from a dangerous atmosphere.
The employer must select respirators from a sufficient number of respirator models and sizes so that the respirator is acceptable to, and correctly fits, the user.
Respirators for atmospheres that are (IDLH)
The employer must provide the following respirators for employee use in IDLH atmospheres:
- A full facepiece pressure demand SCBA certified by NIOSH for a minimum service life of thirty minutes, or
- A combination full facepiece pressure demand supplied-air respirator (SAR) with auxiliary self-contained air supply.
Respirators provided only for escape from IDLH atmospheres must be NIOSH-certified for escape from the atmosphere in which they will be used.
All oxygen-deficient atmospheres must be considered IDLH. Exception: If the employer demonstrates that, under all foreseeable conditions, the oxygen concentration can be maintained within the ranges specified in Table II of the standard (i.e., for the altitudes set out in the table), then any atmosphere-supplying respirator may be used.
Respirators for atmospheres that are not IDLH.
The employer must provide a respirator that is adequate to protect the health of the employee and ensure compliance with all other OSHA statutory and regulatory requirements, under routine and reasonably foreseeable emergency situations.
The respirator selected must be appropriate for the chemical state and physical form of the contaminant.
For protection against gases and vapors, the employer must provide an atmosphere-supplying respirator, or an air-purifying respirator, provided that:
- The respirator is equipped with an end-of-service-life indicator (ESLI) certified by NIOSH for the contaminant; or
- If there is no ESLI appropriate for conditions in the employer's workplace, the employer implements a change schedule for
canisters and cartridges that is based on objective information or data that will ensure that canisters and cartridges are changed before the end of their service life. The employer must describe in the respirator program the information and data relied upon and the basis for the canister and cartridge change schedule and the basis for reliance on the data.
For protection against particulates, the employer must provide:
- An atmosphere-supplying respirator; or
- An air-purifying respirator equipped with a filter certified by NIOSH under 30 CFR part 11 as a high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter, or an air-purifying respirator equipped with a filter certified for particulates by NIOSH under 42 CFR part 84; or
- For contaminants consisting primarily of particles with mass median aerodynamic diameters (MMAD) of at least 2 micrometers, an air-purifying respirator equipped with any filter certified for particulates by NIOSH.
Using respirators
Written procedures. It's important to develop standard procedures for respirator use. These should include all information and guidance necessary for their proper selection, use, and care. Also include possible emergency and routine uses of respirators.
Physical ability to use.Make sure employees are not assigned to tasks requiring respirators unless they are physically able to adequately perform the work and use the equipment. If there is any question or concern about using the respirator, a local physician must determine what health and physical conditions are pertinent. In such cases, periodically review the respirator user's medical status.
Face seal. Do not wear respirators when conditions prevent a good face seal. Such conditions may be a growth of beard, sideburns, a skull cap that projects under the facepiece, or temple pieces on glasses. Also, the absence of one or both dentures can seriously affect the fit of a facepiece. It's important to conduct periodic evaluation of worker compliance with this requirement. To assure proper protection, the facepiece fit must be checked by the wearer, using the manufacturer's facepiece fittings instructions, each time he or she puts on the respirator.
Using corrective lenses. Providing respiratory protection for individuals wearing corrective glasses is a serious problem. A proper seal is impossible if the temple bars of eye glasses extend through the sealing edge of the full facepiece. As a temporary measure, taping glasses with short temple bars or without temple bars to the wearer's head is acceptable. Systems have been developed for mounting corrective lenses inside full facepieces. When a worker must wear corrective lenses as part of the facepiece, the facepiece and lenses must be fitted by qualified individuals to provide good vision, comfort, and a gas-tight seal.
If corrective spectacles or goggles are required, they must not affect the fit of the facepiece. Proper selection of equipment is important to avoid this problem.
Using contact lenses. 1910.134, Respiratory Protection, states that wearing contact lenses in contaminated atmospheres is not permitted.
Maintaining respirators.
Equipment must be properly maintained to retain its original effectiveness.
Respirators must be regularly cleaned and disinfected. Those used by more than one worker must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected after each use.
Respirators must be stored in a convenient, clean, and sanitary location. A program for maintenance and care of respirators must be adjusted to the type of plant, working conditions, and hazards involved, and must include the following basic services:
- Inspection for defects (including a leak check),
- Cleaning and disinfecting,
- Repair,
- Storage
Routinely used respirators must be collected, cleaned, and disinfected as frequently as necessary to insure that proper protection is provided for the wearer. Respirators maintained for emergency use must be cleaned and disinfected after each use.
Replacement or repairs must be done only by experienced persons with parts designed for the respirator. No attempt must be made to replace components or to make adjustments or repairs beyond the manufacturer's recommendations. Reducing or admission valves or regulators must be returned to the manufacturer or to a trained technician for adjustment
or repair.
Storing respirators
Is this respirator properly stored? |
After inspection, cleaning, and necessary repair, respirators must be stored to protect against dust, sunlight, heat, extreme cold, excessive moisture, or damaging chemicals. Respirators placed at stations and work areas for emergency use should be quickly accessible at all times and should be stored in compartments built for the purpose. The compartments should be clearly marked. Routinely used respirators, such as dust respirators, may be placed in plastic bags. Respirators should not be stored in such places as lockers or tool boxes unless they are in carrying cases or cartons. |
Respirators should be packed or stored so that the facepiece and exhalation valve will rest in a normal position and function will not be impaired by the elastomer setting in an abnormal position.
Emergency procedures
In areas where the wearer, with failure of the respirator, could be overcome by a toxic or oxygen-deficient atmosphere, at least one additional person must be present. Communications (visual, voice, or signal line) must be maintained between both or all individuals present. Planning must be such that one individual will be unaffected by any likely incident and have the proper rescue equipment to be able to assist the other(s) in case of emergency.
When self-contained breathing apparatus or hose masks with blowers are used in atmospheres immediately dangerous to life or health, standby persons must be present with suitable rescue equipment.
Persons using air line respirators in atmospheres immediately hazardous to life or health must be equipped with safety harnesses and safety lines for lifting or removing persons from hazardous atmospheres or other and equivalent provisions for the rescue of persons from hazardous atmospheres must be used. A standby person or persons with suitable self-contained breathing apparatus must be at the nearest fresh air base for emergency rescue.
Medical evaluation
Using a respirator may place a physiological burden on employees that varies with the type of
respirator worn, the job and workplace conditions in which the respirator is used, and the medical status of the employee.
The employer must provide a medical evaluation to determine the employee's ability to use a respirator, before the
employee is fit tested or required to use the respirator in the workplace. The employer may discontinue an employee's medical
evaluations when the employee is no longer required to use a respirator.
Medical evaluation procedures.
The employer must identify a physician or other licensed health care professional (PLHCP) to
perform medical evaluations using a medical questionnaire or an initial medical examination that obtains the same information as the medical questionnaire.
The medical evaluation must obtain the information requested by the questionnaire in Sections 1 and 2, Part A of Appendix C of the standard.
Follow-up medical examination.
The employer must ensure that a follow-up medical examination is provided for an employee who
gives a positive response to any question among questions 1 through 8 in Section 2, Part A of Appendix C of the standard or whose initial medical examination demonstrates the need for a follow-up medical examination.
The follow-up medical examination must include any medical tests, consultations, or diagnostic procedures that the PLHCP deems
necessary to make a final determination.
Medical determination.
In determining the employee's ability to use a respirator, the employer must:
- Obtain a written recommendation regarding the employee's ability to use the respirator from the PLHCP. The recommendation must provide only the following information:
- Any limitations on respirator use related to the medical condition of the employee, or relating to the workplace conditions in
which the respirator will be used, including whether or not the employee is medically able to use the respirator;
- The need, if any, for follow-up medical evaluations; and
- A statement that the PLHCP has provided the employee with a copy of the PLHCP's written recommendation.
If the respirator is a negative pressure respirator and the PLHCP finds a medical condition that may place the employee's health at
increased risk if the respirator is used, the employer must provide a PAPR if the PLHCP's medical evaluation finds that the employee can use such a respirator; if a subsequent medical evaluation finds that the employee is medically able to use a negative pressure respirator, then the employer is no longer required to provide a PAPR.
Additional medical evaluations.
At a minimum, the employer must provide additional medical evaluations that comply with the
requirements of this section if:
- An employee reports medical signs or symptoms that are related to ability to use a respirator;
- A PLHCP, supervisor, or the respirator program administrator informs the employer that an employee needs to be reevaluated;
- Information from the respiratory protection program, including observations made during fit testing and program evaluation, indicates a need for employee reevaluation; or
- A change occurs in workplace conditions (e.g., physical work effort, protective clothing, temperature) that may result in a
- substantial increase in the physiological burden placed on an employee.
Identification of gas mask cartridges and canisters
1910.134, Respiratory Protection, states that all gas mask cartridges and cartridges must be properly labeled and colored before they are placed in service.
Each cartridge or canister must have a label warning that gas masks should be used only in atmospheres containing sufficient oxygen to support life (at least 16 percent by volume), since cartridges and canisters are only designed to neutralize or remove contaminants from the air.
Each gas mask cartridge or canister must be painted a distinctive color or combination of colors indicated in Table I-1 of the standard.
Where respirator use is not required
An employer may provide respirators at the request of employees
or permit employees to use their own respirators, if the employer
determines that such respirator use will not in itself create a hazard.
If the employer determines that any voluntary respirator use is
permissible, the employer must provide the respirator users with the
information contained in Appendix D of the standard.
In addition, the employer must establish and implement those
elements of a written respiratory protection program necessary to
ensure that any employee using a respirator voluntarily is medically
able to use that respirator, and that the respirator is cleaned,
stored, and maintained so that its use does not present a health hazard
to the user. Exception: Employers are not required to include in a
written respiratory protection program those employees whose only use
of respirators involves the voluntary use of filtering facepieces (dust
masks).
Last Words
OK, that was a lot of information. Remember this was only a brief overview of respirator use. In the next module, we'll be taking a look at requirements for head, hand, and foot personal protective equipment. Well, it's time for the review quiz, so let's do it!
Take the Review Quiz
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