Upgrading NIOSH's respirator approval requirements - a public health necessity.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Leidel, Nelson A.
• Description:
  The need for revision of NIOSH industrial respirator approval requirements was addressed and details of the 1987 proposed regulatory revision (42 CFR 84) were presented. Topics included the reasons for upgrading the requirements, a discussion on public response to the proposal, controversial issues involved in the proposed regulatory revision, and information on what industrial hygienists should do in regard to the proposal. Major advances of the proposed regulation included: a sweeping technical upgrade of the laboratory performance tests; addition of quantitative fit performance testing in the laboratory on 25 person panels for all negative pressure respirators; addition of workplace or simulated workplace performance testing to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of every NIOSH approved respirator; and, providing respirator manufacturers with the maximum opportunity to market innovative new respirators by replacing current approval tests that are design or application specific with tests that are performance based. The author suggest that industrial hygienists call NIOSH to obtain a copy of the proposed regulation and send comments back to NIOSH, recognize the limitations of the tests and criteria underlying the current NIOSH regulations, recognize that the use of NIOSH approved respirators is only one part of an adequate respiratory protection program, and obtain detailed information from respirator distributors and manufacturers regarding respirator usage before selecting particular makes and models. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Respiratory Protective Devices Respiratory System Safety
• Keywords:
  Air-purifying-respirators Industrial-hygiene NIOSH-Author Personal-protective-equipment Regulations Respiratory-equipment Respiratory-protective-equipment
• ISSN:
  0882-8032
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Georgia ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OD - Office of the Director
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  3
• Issue:
  11
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00183460
• Citation:
  Appl Ind Hyg 1988 Nov; 3(11):F22-F24
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1989
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Applied Industrial Hygiene
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a0a4e3ad1ec1186d7be4bdc4ac5ea99df3c1762288c56a71dab6e3a2cc0a2d3ec5c4b05d4771cfac902834f84099e262c334fdf13035c60dbdd45ecd4113f081
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/185659/cdc_185659_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 547.44 KB ]