Page 22 - OHS, May 2021

RESPIRATORY PROTECTION
What’s New in Respiratory Protection?
Understanding the difference in respiratory protection and source control.
MBY DENNIS TERPIN, PH.D.
illions of workers are required to wear respirators in various workplaces throughout the United States. Respirators
protect workers against insufficient oxygen environments, harmful dusts, fogs, smokes, mists, gases, vapors, and sprays. These hazards may cause cancer, lung impairment, diseases, or death. Compliance with the OSHA Respiratory Protection Standard could avert hundreds of deaths and thousands of illnesses annually. There are many challenges in the administration of a respiratory protection program. Each employer has his or her own unique concerns and needs depending on the industry, whether it be health care, general industry, construction or emergency response.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit us hard more than a year ago, we have been faced with personal protective equipment and respiratory protection shortages, fraudulent sales of PPE and counterfeit filtering facepiece respirators. They have had a major impact on the healthcare industry. It is important when purchasing respiratory protection that validity of the paperwork is verified. A review of documents from companies based in China has found a significant amount of falsified documentation.
Many healthcare providers were forced to purchase KN95s to provide respiratory protection for their healthcare providers only to find that they were unable to achieve an acceptably tight face seal for devices with ear loops. Such devices will not provide the expected level of protection against COVID-19 and other hazards. KN95 respirators with ear loops are not recommended for use in healthcare settings unless they are a last resort before downgrading protection to a medical facemask
In the battle to protect our workers we have been introduced to a new set of terminology: Respiratory Protection vs. Source Control. What is the difference? In layman’s terms, respiratory protection protects the wearer and source control protects others. Unlike respirators,
masks are not designed to reduce the particles that the wearer will inhale and are not evaluated by NIOSH for their effectiveness to protect the wearer from airborne hazards. How effective are face coverings in terms of protection, fit, comfort, filtration and safety?
To meet a gap in source control and respiratory protection, two important standards and certifications have just been released: the ASTM F3502-21 Standard Specification for Barrier Face Coverings and the NIOSH certification of the First Elastomeric Half Mask Respirator Without an Exhalation Valve.
ASTM F3502-21 Standard Specification for Barrier Face Coverings is primarily intended to help ensure barrier face coverings to meet the stated requirements to provide a means of source control for individual wearers by reducing the number of expelled droplets and aerosols from the wearer’s nose and mouth into the air and to potentially offer adegreeofparticulatefiltrationtoreduce
the amount of inhaled particulate matter by the wearer. The standard establishes minimum care, design, labeling and performance requirements for reusable barrier face coverings.
Remember, respirator use must be in the context of a complete respiratory protection program in accordance with OSHA’s Respiratory Protection standard: 29 CFR 1910.134.1 All respirator users must be medically evaluated, trained and fit-tested.
To meet these concerns, OSHA states in 29 CFR 1910.134(c)(3) that:
“The employer shall designate a program administrator who is qualified by appropriate training or experience that is commensurate with the complexity of the program to administer or oversee the respiratory protection program and conduct the required evaluations of program effectiveness.”
Let us consider this statement, the employer shall designate a program administrator who is qualified by
18 Occupational Health & Safety | MAY 2021
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