OSHA standard targets respiratory protection
March 1, 1998 3 minutes read
OSHA standard targets respiratory protection
Estimated cost: $22 per employee per year
A new federal respiratory protection standard has been released that reflects current technology, specifies respirator program provisions, and provides specific guidance on respirator selection and use, hazard evaluation, medical assessments, fit testing, and training.1
In releasing the new standard, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimates that more than 4,000 illnesses and injuries, in addition to as many as 1,625 deaths, will likely be prevented annually in all industries affected by the new rule. In the health care industry, OSHA notes that the original respiratory protection standard issued in 1974 (CFR 1910.134) will continue to apply to respirator use for occupational exposure to tuberculosis until the proposed TB standard2 is made final. (For more details on the proposed TB standard, see Hospital Employee Health, January 1998, pp. 1-4; February 1998, pp. 13-17.)
Continuing to enforce CDC guidelines
"We have renumbered the old [respiratory protection] standard as 1910.139, and it will apply to tuberculosis in the meantime," says John Steelnack, an OSHA industrial hygienist and project officer for the respirator standard revision. "By keeping the old respirator standard until then, it allows us to enforce the CDC guidelines meanwhile, so that enforcement strategy will keep on. When the TB standard is finalized, that will replace the old respirator standard."
The new standard, which becomes effective April 8, applies to more than 200,000 respirator wearers in the health services industry, according to OSHA. Agency officials estimate the cost of implementing the standard at about $22 per employee per year.
Steelnack says the revised standard will apply to other hospital workers who wear respirators, such as those using ethylene oxide to sterilize equipment; maintenance workers engaged in tasks including welding, asbestos removal, painting, or renovating; and some laboratory workers. Those workers would continue to be trained as they have been under the old standard, he points out.
Changes will simplify respirator requirements by deleting duplicated provisions and revising other respirator-related provisions in OSHA standards to make them all consistent. Similar to other OSHA standards, the respiratory protection regulation emphasizes the industrial hygiene model of a hierarchy of controls to protect workers.
"OSHA considers respirators to be necessary to protect the health of the employee whenever feasible engineering and work practice controls are not available, are not sufficient to protect employee health, have not yet been instituted, in emergencies, and where the health of an employee is at risk (e.g., whenever employee exposure exceeds an OSHA permissible exposure limit)," the rule states.
Standard requires hazard evaluations
Major requirements of a respirator program as outlined in the standard are:
• establishing a written plan with worksite-specific procedures that tailor the program to each worksite;
• performing hazard evaluations to characterize respiratory hazards and work conditions to assist employers in selecting appropriate respirators;
• providing medical evaluations to determine workers’ ability to wear the respirator selected;
• fit-testing tight-fitting respirators to reduce face-seal leakage and ensure adequate respirator protection;
• training employees to ensure that they use respirators safely;
• evaluating the program periodically to ensure that respirator use continues to be effective.
References
1. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Respiratory protection; final rule. 63 Fed Reg 1,152-1,300 (Jan. 8, 1998).
2. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Occupational exposure to tuberculosis; proposed rule. 62 Fed Reg 54,159-54,307 (Oct. 17, 1997).
(Editor’s note: Specific details of what employee health practitioners must know to comply with the new respiratory protection standard will be covered in an upcoming issue of Hospital Employee Health.)
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