85 NIOSH Respirators

Note: Not a perfect transcript.

Hi this is Jim Poesl from safety wars. At the end of this podcast stay tuned for a special message from me.

Welcome to the first broadcast from Fallout Shelter Studio’s in Rockland County, NY. We are finishing up the renovations after our flood last year.

In case you haven’t known, the emergency temporary standard for COVID has been shot down by the Supreme Court. The standard for Covid stays for medical settings.

We also know that safety professionals have been recommending a rated respirator like a NIOSH N-95 respirator from the beginning of this pandemic.

Now we see the feds finally jump on the boat and recommend N-95 respirators and they are actually going to send N-95’s to everyone who wants them.

Well if you are an employer or concerned citizen there are a hole bunch of things you need to remember.

1. A NIOSH, that is National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (a division of the cdc) certified respirator is a real filtering facepiece respirator and falls under the purview of OSHA in the workplace.

2. According to the regulations. 1910.134 you need to do a lot of things including the following:

a. A workplace assessment

b. One conduct training

c. Have fit testing done, to make sure the respirator actually works

d. Have medical clearance completed for each employee by an appropriate medical professional.

Let’s talk about this last one, I’ve managed respirator programs for several thousand workers over the years. We can all see people not having medical clearance on let’s say a self contained breathing apparatus, a dual canister respirator or something like that. What about these “filtering facepiece respirators” or dust masks. I knew on paper at least, that people could have all different types of reasons why they can’t wear a respirator. Reasons like:

1. Uncontrolled diabetes

2. Heart issues, including high blood pressure

3. COPD

4. Lung issues, like asthma

5. Claustrophobia.

Last April I had first-hand experience when while at a family event someone put on an imitation respirator also known as a face covering, and had some type of seizure or asthma attack. He nearly passed out. So I now really know the importance of a medical assessment.

What if an employee wears a NIOSH rated respirator voluntarily. The employer under 1910.134 Appendix D of the respirator standard must:

1. Read and heed all instructions provided by the manufacturer on use, maintenance, cleaning and care, and warnings regarding the respirators limitations.

2. Choose respirators certified for use to protect against the contaminant of concern.

3. Do not wear your respirator into atmospheres containing contaminants for which your respirator is not designed to protect against.

4. Keep track of your respirator so that you do not mistakenly use someone else's respirator.

One of the reasons why face coverings, KN-95’s, or FFP2’s are being used as opposed to N-95’s is that they are legally not respirators in the United States and then you don’t need to comply with OSHA regulations. Let’s remember if they actually meet the standard they are basically equivalent to the N-95’s according to evaluations that I have read.

What about giving out N-95 respirators to everyone which is being done now by the Fed’s and local communities? My concern, are people who have medical issues going to have issues wearing these N-95s?

Are we misdefining what safety is? Do people actually believe that this will stop the pandemic? Is this fortuitously timed at the end of the Omicron spike in the US, that people will now link N-95’s with the pandemic coming to an end?

All of these questions need to be considered here by public policy folks.

Give us a call here at 845-694-4170 or you can email me at jim@safetywars.com to schedule your training class today.

For Safety Wars, this is Jim Poesl.

From Fallout Shelter Studio's in Rockland County, NY this is Safety Wars.

On today's episode we discuss the current craze over N-95 respirator's and the employers requirements.

Bottom line: NIOSH certified respirators (dust masks/n-95's) have specific requirements under OSHA, if you are using other than a NIOSH Certified respirator or 'face covering" you probably need to do training on that also.

Call us at 845-694-4170 or jim@safetywars.com to schedule your training today.