Respiratory Protection

While working on a project I came across this gem on my external hard drive and can not believe I never posted it!!!  Yes it is from NIOSH – not OSHA and yes it is nearly 10 years, but the facts are the facts and one day I hope we can put this facial hair…...

The Respiratory Protection Standard (29 CFR 1910.134) contains information collection requirements that require employers to: Develop a written respirator program; Conduct worker medical evaluations and provide follow-up medical evaluations to determine the worker’s ability to use a respirator; Provide the physician or other licensed healthcare professional with information about the worker’s respirator and the conditions…...

Several million American workers wear respirators on a regular basis, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that nonagricultural firms have a respiratory protection program. This article uses the OSHA inspection data base to examine all inspections in manufacturing in 47 states from 1999 through 2006; the examination starts with 1999 because an…...

Earlier this year I came across an interesting incident that occurred during a Confined Space Rescue Exercise in Vancouver Island, Canada.  I further investigated by contacting WorkSafe BC directly, who then got me in touch with the Fire Chief of the FD that conducted the exercise.  Here is what happened in September 2013 and what…...

1910.134(c)(3) requires employers to designate a person as the respiratory protection “program administrator” and to ensure that this person is qualified to perform the responsibilities of this position. The person can be qualified either by appropriate training or experience or both. The administrator is also the person responsible for evaluating the program, as stated in…...

Does your safety program have any safe work practices or does your Process Safety Management system have procedures with this requirement? It seems to be the fairly commonplace to require personnel to “have PPE available” for some critical tasks that can turn into an IDLH environment rather quickly. For those not familiar with this “practice”,…...

  NIOSH issues certificates of approval for specific and complete respirator assemblies. The approval is granted after the respirator has been evaluated and found to be in compliance with all of the requirements of the NIOSH regulations in Title 42, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 84.The requirements include the presence of a viable quality assurance…...

The short answer is YES.  This can be a hotly contested debate as there are both paid and volunteer departments that believe they are somehow exempt from basic safety programs.  In the state of Ohio (OH) professional firefighters are NOT covered by OSHA since OH is a federal OSHA plan; and volunteers do not fall…...