Help for new standard on respiratory protection
New information from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in Washington, DC, may help you and your clients comply with the new respiratory protection standard.
The information comes in the form of OSHA’s new enforcement directive to agency field personnel, but it also will be useful to employers in meeting requirements of the standard. The standard was published Jan. 8, 1998, and employers had to be in compliance by Oct. 5, 1998. The new rule includes the "two-in/two-out" provision aimed at improving firefighter safety.
The new standard applies to all respirator use in general industry, shipyards, marine terminals, longshore facilities, and construction workplaces. It does not apply to agricultural operations or to occupational exposure to tuberculosis. The use of respirators to protect against tuberculosis will continue to be enforced under the old standard, which has been redesignated 1910.139. The old standard will apply to tuberculosis only until OSHA issues a final standard for occupational exposure to tuberculosis.
The new respirator standard, 1910.134, applies to respirators worn to protect employees from exposure to air contaminants above a specified exposure limit or otherwise necessary to protect employee health.
It also covers situations in which respirators are otherwise required to be worn by the employer, and when respirators are voluntarily worn by the employee for comfort or other reasons.
The compliance directive, CPL 2-0.120, discusses definitions of terms used in the standard, requirements for a written respiratory protection program and a respiratory protection program administrator, voluntary use of respirators, medical evaluation of an employee’s fitness to wear a respirator, fit testing for employees using negative or positive pressure tight-fitting respirators, and other issues.
The directive also discusses the "two-in/two-out" rule for firefighters, including those in industrial fire brigades. That rule requires that firefighters entering a dangerous atmosphere must go in pairs and maintain visual or voice contact (not radio) at all times, and there must be two more firefighters stationed outside equipped to enter immediately and rescue the firefighters inside.
There is an explicit exemption that allows firefighters to rescue someone in immediate jeopardy without following the "two-in/two-out" rule.
The directive can be accessed through the OSHA Web page at http://www.osha.gov, under "library/reading room" and then "directives."
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