Back to Basics is a weekly feature that highlights important but possibly overlooked information that any EHS professional should know. This week, we examine OSHA’s respiratory protection requirements.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) respiratory protection standard (29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §1910.134) is one of its top 10 most-cited standards. In fact, it’s OSHA’s seventh most-cited standard.
In fiscal year (FY) 2023, the agency cited 2,481 violations.
Last year, OSHA issued new enforcement guidance authorizing “instance-by-instance” citations for “high-gravity” serious violations of several agency standards, including the respiratory protection standard.
Are you at risk for a citation? If respiratory hazards exist in your workplace, is your respiratory protection program fully compliant?
You must develop and implement a written program under the federal standard, and the program must include the following:
- Employee medical evaluations. Can your employees safely wear respirators?
- Procedures for selecting respiratory protection.
- Initial and annual fit testing.
- Procedures and schedules for cleaning, disinfecting, storing, inspecting, repairing, discarding, and maintaining respirators.
- Procedures for ensuring adequate air quality, quantity, and flow of breathing air in atmosphere-supplying respirators.
- Employee training in potential respiratory hazards during routine and emergency situations.
- Employee training in the proper use of respirators, including putting on and removing them, and any limitations in their use and respirator maintenance.
- Procedures for evaluating the effectiveness of your program.
California’s unique requirements for respirators
California’s respiratory protection standard is “at least as effective” as OSHA’s federal standard. However, the state also has its own unique respiratory protection requirements: a wildfire smoke standard and an emergency temporary standard for silica.
As the Line Fire severely affected air quality in California’s Inland Empire, or the areas around San Bernardino and Riverside, California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) reminded California employers of their obligations under the state’s wildfire smoke standard. The agency issued a similar notice earlier this summer for several wildfires burning in Northern, Central, and Southern California.
Employers in the state must monitor air quality conditions, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) AirNow website tracks local air quality index (AQI) readings.
California’s wildfire smoke standard is triggered when the AQI for particulate matter (PM2.5) is 151 or greater.
Steps employers must take when the AQI for PM2.5 is 151 or greater include the following:
- Informing employees of the AQI and the available protective measures;
- Providing proper respiratory protection equipment, such as disposable respirators for voluntary use—N95, N99, N100, R95, P95, P99, or P100; and
- Making changes to work procedures or schedules, such as changing the location where employees work or reducing the time they work outdoors and are exposed to unfiltered outdoor air or, if feasible, modifying the workplace, such as providing enclosed structures or vehicles for employees to work in where the air is filtered.
If the AQI for PM2.5 exceeds 500, respiratory protection is required. Then employers must meet additional respiratory protection requirements, including fit testing and worker medical evaluation to ensure they can safely use respirators.
Oregon also has a permanent wildfire smoke standard with a mandatory respiratory protection requirement when the AQI for PM2.5 reaches 501 or higher. Oregon employers must provide respirators for voluntary use whenever the AQI reaches 101 or higher.
Last year, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) approved an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for respirable crystalline silica to protect workers from silicosis.
In addition to implementing required work practices for cutting, grinding, polishing, and cleaning artificial stone, employers must provide and ensure their workers correctly use full-face, tight-fitting, powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs) or an equally protective alternative.
Earlier this month, Cal/OSHA cited nine employers in the greater Los Angeles area as part of its efforts to address the growing number of silicosis cases among stone workers in California.
Federal OSHA also has a respirable crystalline silica standard requiring respiratory protection. Last month, OSHA cited a Chicago countertop manufacturer when the agency learned an employee needed a double lung transplant after suffering accelerated silicosis. The employer faces OSHA fines of over $1 million.
Respiratory protection resources
How can you predict your respirator needs? The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has a tool for that.
In 2022, the institute released a tool for predicting N95 respirator needs in non-healthcare workplaces as part of research published in Health Security.
NIOSH’s tool appears in the article’s supplemental material.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) didn’t recommend using N95 respirators for non-healthcare workers as a method of infection control. In the early months of the pandemic, all workplaces experienced a shortage of filtering facepiece respirators, like N95s. The CDC updated its recommendations in May 2021 to include N95 respirators for non-healthcare settings as supplies of N95s became more available.
NIOSH researchers identified essential non-healthcare occupations and the number of workers employed in those occupations, estimating that about 85 million essential non-healthcare workers could need N95 respirators during another pandemic spread by aerosolized particles.
NIOSH suggested that its tool could help public health officials and policymakers prepare for future pandemics, planning for likely N95 needs.
In last year’s respiratory disease season outlook, the CDC flagged the possibility of a “tripledemic” of respiratory disease in 2023, including COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
The CDC tracks respiratory disease cases, including flu cases, in its weekly U.S. influenza surveillance report and all respiratory illnesses (known as “influenza-like illnesses”) in its weekly ILINet surveillance report.
NIOSH observed its annual Respiratory Protection Week during the first week of September. New resources released for Respiratory Protection Week included “Tips for Managing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in Your Stockpile: Respirator Selection and Purchase” on the institute’s Science Blog and a fact sheet on respiratory protection for chimney sweeps, which the institute identified as an underserved worker population.
NIOSH also recently published the results of a survey of healthcare workers about perceived workplace safety and the availability of respirators during the pandemic. Healthcare workers who received reusable respirators, such as elastomeric half-mask respirators, during the pandemic gave high marks on the safety climate at their workplaces.
NIOSH first observed an N95 Day in 2012, expanding it into its Respiratory Protection Week in 2019.
You can find lists of NIOSH-approved N95 respirators and other filtering facepiece respirators (surgical N95, N99, N100, R95, P95, P99, and P100) on the institute’s website. NIOSH also has fact sheets covering counterfeit N95 respirators and understanding filtration efficiency testing and respirator fit testing.
OSHA enforcement
As mentioned, the respiratory protection standard is one of OSHA’s top 10 most-cited standards, and agency area offices are now authorized to issue “instance-by-instance” citations for violations.
Earlier this year, OSHA cited an Atlanta chemical manufacturer with 67 serious violations and $289,439 in proposed penalties for employee hexavalent chromium exposures. The 67 serious violations cited included violations of the respiratory protection standard, including failing to provide a medical evaluation before workers were fit tested or required to use respirators.
After workers at a Commerce, Georgia, electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility suffered potentially permanent respiratory damage in a lithium battery fire, OSHA cited an employer a second time in less than a year, seeking $77,200 in new penalties. Agency inspectors determined the employer exposed workers to inhalation hazards, including hydrofluoric acid vapors produced in lithium battery fires. Inspectors also found the company failed to annually fit test workers required to use tight-fitting facepiece respirators.
This summer, OSHA cited a New Jersey water tank painting contractor after a worker’s 80-foot fall from a water tower that resulted in severe injuries. The 3 willful and 19 serious violations included failing to develop a site-specific respiratory protection program or provide the respirator cartridge required to filter crystalline silica. The agency proposed penalties totaling $485,580.
Last fall, OSHA cited a tank servicing firm after two workers suffered injuries from hydrogen sulfide (H2S) exposure. OSHA inspectors determined the company didn’t evaluate the worksite for possible respiratory hazards or provide adequate respiratory protection.
This spring, OSHA cited an Austin, Texas-based subsidiary of one of the nation’s largest producers of manufactured and modular homes with 25 serious and 2 other-than-serious safety and health violations, including failing to maintain a respiratory protection program to protect workers from isocyanates and silica. The agency remarked it cited the company with 38 workplace safety and health violations at manufacturing facilities in four states. The company’s Austin facility was selected for inspection as part of the agency’s National Emphasis Program (NEP) targeting facilities with high injury rates.
Is your workplace a target for OSHA inspection and high-dollar penalties?
Respiratory protection regulation, compliance
OSHA, NIOSH, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) all have roles in the federal regulatory framework. The FDA regulates surgical masks and respirators for use in healthcare facilities under its medical device authority. NIOSH evaluates and approves all respirators used in the United States, including testing N95 respirators for healthcare use, under a memorandum of understanding with the FDA to ensure such respirators meet the FDA’s requirements. OSHA, of course, sets and enforces standards for workplace respiratory protection programs.
Ensure you understand your facilities’ respiratory hazards and have a complete respiratory protection program in place.
Remember that a compliant respiratory protection program must include:
- Policy and procedures for selecting respirators appropriate for hazards in your workplace;
- Medical evaluations to confirm your employees’ ability to use respirators;
- Respirator fit testing following OSHA-approved protocols and using tight-fitting respirators to ensure a facepiece seal;
- Employee training and information to ensure employees can perform a user seal check each time a respirator is used;
- Employee training regarding potential respiratory hazards during both routine operations and emergency situations;
- Employee training that covers both the proper use of respirators and their limitations;
- Maintenance and care, cleaning and disinfection, and storage of reusable respirators, as well as when and how to discard disposable respirators;
- Ensuring atmosphere-supplying respirators have adequate air quality, quantity, and breathing airflow; and
- Policies and procedures for periodically evaluating the effectiveness of your program and making any necessary modifications.
You also must maintain written records of your program, medical evaluations, and fit testing. Your respiratory protection recordkeeping helps satisfy three goals: facilitating employee involvement, assisting you in auditing the adequacy of your program, and providing a record of compliance for OSHA.