WEEKLY TOOL BOX SAFETY MEETINGS
RESPIRATORS
Respirators prevent lung pollution. Your lungs become polluted when you inhale air that’s polluted with harmful dust, fumes, mist, gases, or smoke. Think about it — you breathe 16 to 24 times a minute, and even more if you are doing strenuous work. Your lungs are designed to work on clean, uncontaminated air, not a smoggy mix of chemical vapors, grinder particles, and toxic fumes. Construction workers wear respirators on the job every day. There are many workers who should wear respirators but don’t. They use their lungs to collect all of those harmful materials. The end result is dirty, polluted lungs. When your respirator filters get dirty, they can be cleaned or replaced — it’s almost impossible to replace your lungs when they get dirty.
Respirators must be provided by your employer when engineering controls are not feasible to control occupational diseases caused by breathing contaminated air. As of October 1998, OSHA began requiring all employers to develop written respiratory protection programs. Each program must contain worksite-specific procedures. Some of the other requirements of the standard include:
ü Hazard evaluation — to assist employers in selecting appropriate respirators.
ü Medical evaluation — to determine whether the employee can safely and effectively use the selected respirator.
ü Fit testing — to ensure that the respirator will do its job properly.
ü Employee training — to instruct the employee in the proper care and use of the respirator.
ü Periodic program re-evaluation — to ensure that the program is accurate and up-to-date.
Medical evaluations include completing a medical history, physical exam, pulmonary function test, and an observation of the worker using a respirator. Fit testing is accomplished by qualitative testing to make sure the wearer cannot detect odor or taste, and is not bothered by nasal irritation when an agent is released around the respirator wearer.
Once you have been approved to wear a respirator it’s up to you to maintain it — inspect your respirator prior to each use, clean it after each use, and store it properly. Consider enrolling in a respirator training course to learn more about the types of respirators, how to use them, and how they function. If you need additional information on respirators ask your supervisor or consult OSHA standards 29 CFR 1910.134and 1926.103.
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Topics Pertaining To Your Project ________________________________________________________________
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Employee Safety Recommendations ___________________________________________________________
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Meeting Attended By: Please sign your name and date.
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These instructions do not supersede local, state, or federal regulations.
Supervisor’s Signature ______________________________________________________________________
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