Michael Karl McNeil

Respiratory protection is one of the standards employers most often believe they comply with and most often do not. The equipment is bought, the crew wears it, and nothing on paper exists. Section 5144 of Title 8 is written the other way round: the paperwork is the requirement, and the respirator is only the last line of it.

The written program is the trigger, not the respirator

Subsection (c)(1) requires a written respiratory protection program wherever respirators are necessary, or wherever the employer requires their use. The program has to set out procedures for selection, medical evaluation, fit testing, proper use in routine and emergency conditions, maintenance, training, and an evaluation of whether any of it is working. A box of N95s in the job trailer with no document behind it is not a program.

Subsection (c)(3) adds the part that gets overlooked in inspections: the employer must name a program administrator, qualified by training or experience commensurate with the complexity of the program. Naming someone who has never been trained is a finding on its own.

Medical evaluation comes before the fit test

Under subsection (e)(1) the medical evaluation happens before the employee is fit tested or wears the respirator at work — not after, and not at the next physical. Subsection (e)(2) requires the information in the Appendix C questionnaire, Sections 1 and 2. Subsection (e)(7) requires a further evaluation when an employee reports medical signs or symptoms, or when a physical change could affect the fit.

Fit testing: three occasions, and a ceiling on the qualitative method

Subsection (f)(2) requires a fit test before initial use, again whenever a different facepiece is used — a different size, style, model or make counts — and at least annually after that. Subsection (f)(5) requires an OSHA-accepted QLFT or QNFT protocol. Subsection (f)(6) is the one that decides which of the two an employer may use: qualitative fit testing is limited to negative pressure respirators with a fit factor of 100 or less. Above that, quantitative testing is the only option.

Voluntary use is still governed

Subsection (c)(2) covers the employee who brings a dust mask from home. The employer must determine that the voluntary use will not itself create a hazard, and must supply the information in Appendix D. Voluntary does not mean unregulated; it means a shorter set of obligations that still has to be met.

Training, retraining and evaluation

Subsection (k)(3) requires training before the employee is required to wear a respirator at work. Subsection (k)(5) requires retraining annually, and sooner where workplace conditions change or where it becomes apparent the employee has not retained what was taught.

Subsection (l)(1) requires the employer to evaluate the workplace as necessary to confirm the written program is actually being implemented, and subsection (l)(2) requires consulting employees who wear respirators about fit, selection, use and maintenance. That consultation is the cheapest evidence of a working program an employer can generate, and almost nobody documents it.

Where this usually goes wrong

The pattern across the sites I have assessed is consistent: the respirators are appropriate, the people are willing, and the file is empty. There is no named administrator, medical evaluations came after fit testing rather than before, fit tests were done once at hire and never repeated, and no one has written down a single program evaluation. Each of those is a separate subsection, and each can be cited separately.

Citations in this article are to Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations, Section 5144, as published by the Department of Industrial Relations.

---

Michael Karl McNeil, REP, RIH, EPP, QSD