OSHA recently posted a Letter of Interpretation where they reference their Compliance Directive, Inspection Procedures for the Respiratory Protection Standard, CPL 02-00-158, and the standard’s preamble in establishing the medical evaluations for “voluntary use” of negative pressure (tight-fitting) respirators. This issue has been made clear in the CPL for years, but I thought I would share the LOI with everyone, as it is direct and to the point.
Bottom line… medical evaluations ARE REQUIRED for negative pressure (tight-fitting) respirators – they are NOT required when the respirator being used on a voluntary basis is a filtering facepiece respirator (or dust mask). Here is more from OSHA… (emphasis by me, and I have reformatted it)
SAFTENG Members should also see my 50+other respiratory protection articles where we cover this topic