Respiratory Protection Program

A respiratory protection program addresses exposures to airborne dust, engineered nanomaterials, and chemical exposures as well as implementing and evaluating other effective exposure control measures.


Risks Addressed:

Silicosis and lung cancer due to exposure to crystalline silica and respirable dust; exposure to titanium dioxide, carbon nanotubes and other nano-enabled construction products that are possibly carcinogenic to humans and may cause respiratory illness; acute and chronic effects of chemical exposures.


How Risks are Reduced:

Respirators are limited in the protection they provide.  Respirator filters remove contaminants from the air the user breathes but some of the contaminant may pass through the filter or leak around the seal of the respirator facepiece to the wearer’s face. Each respirator type has an assigned protection factor (APF) that tells you the number by which you are allowed to divide your measured exposures to determine how much the wearer is breathing.  The APF is only valid if the respirator has been properly selected, fitted and worn and the user is properly trained.  All overexposed persons, not just the person creating the exposure, must wear a respirator.

The use of engineering controls, such as ventilated tools and wet work methods, may reduce dust exposures to a point where only filtering facepieces are required to reduce worker exposures to beneath the allowable limit.  This results in a much simpler, but still reliable program. 

The selection of respiratory protection types should always be based on reliable industrial hygiene monitoring data.

Availability

TSI
For purchasing information, qualitative and quantitative fit testers are available at http://www.tsi.com/Respirator-Fit-Testers/ or contact 1-800-874-2811 or by e-mail

Here is more information on requirements and procedures for respirator fit testing: http://www.labsafety.com/refinfo/ezfacts/ezf140.htm

Here is a list of NIOSH-approved N95 Particulate Filtering Facepiece Respirators: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/topics/respirators/disp_part/n95list1.htm