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Respirator Fit Testing also Requires Training | Your Safety DepartmentSM

Respirator safety training is essential for any employee, supervisor, or manager who is required to wear (or supervise the wearing of) respirators in the workplace. These individuals need to know how to properly use the respiratory protection devices they possess and be properly instructed by competent persons on their selection, use, and maintenance. There is nothing more dangerous for an individual than to be provided with equipment that he or she does not know how to use, what the limitations are, or when and when not to use the device.

Case study - many years ago I worked as a tankerman loading chemical barges on the Mississippi river. I happened to be assigned to relieve another tankerman who had been working some long hours on a barge loading toluene. It was in the winter and the tankerman was wearing a parka that created an area in front of his face that trapped the toluene vapors. Back in those days, we did open top loading rather than through a vapor recovery system and in this case, there were toluene vapors being formed outside the tank. Toluene vapor is substantially heavier than air and it dissipated pretty low around the tanks. When the tankerman bent over to check on the quantity being loaded into the tanks he eventually became overcome by the toluene vapors.

I arrived on the deck of the barge at the same moment that he indicated how the toluene vapors were affecting him at which time he collapsed at my feet. He lived but, it was a harrowing 45-60 minute recovery and an overnight stay at the hospital.

This just didn't have to happen and while others might blame our youthfulness at the time, how much of this could have been avoided by some decent respiratory safety training? This wasn't just one man's life but the lives of others that were being impacted - the lives of his wife and children, the impact that this incident could have caused on our ability to retain work, and possibly a fatality.

With that being said - are you providing appropriate respiratory protection training to your employees? At a minimum your Respiratory Safety Training Program should include these 7 elements:

  1. Safety training should provide the methods used for recognizing respiratory hazards including the need for respirator fit testing.

  2. Safety training should provide some instruction in the hazards identified and an honest assessment of what could happen if the proper respiratory protection devices are not used.

  3. An explanation as to why other safety controls are not immediately feasible (i.e. such as vapor recovery systems). The explanation should also include recognition that every reasonable effort is being made to reduce or eliminate the need for respiratory protection.

  4. Safety training on the various types of respiratory protection devices and what purposes they are suitable for.

  5. Safety training on the capabilities and limitations of the devices used.

  6.  Instruction and training in the actual use of respiratory protection equipment and the requirement for frequent supervision to ensure that the devices are being properly used.

  7. Classroom and field safety training on recognizing and coping with emergency situations.

Before employees are required to use any tight-fitting respirator OSHA requires that they must complete and submit a Medical Evaluation Questionnaire (MEQ) and (after approval) be respirator fit tested for the devices they will wear in the field. 

If you want to learn more check out this free download from Your Safety DepartmentSM:

OSHA Respirator Standard Review

Respirator fit testing and respirator safety training requirements | Your Safety DepartmentSM

How would your organization measure up against this standard? Can you afford to be out of compliance? What if it were you who was required to wear a respirator?

According to a study issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics 12% of the manufacturing establishments inspected were found to have violated the Respiratory Protection Standard and of those establishments that underwent health inspections, 22% received Respiratory Protection Violations.

OSHA’s respiratory protection standard took effect on October 5, 1998, and it has over 150 separate provisions within the 13 major sections of the Standard—1910.134(a) to 1910.134(m).

In brief, these are the RP standard’s requirements for employers:

  1. Employers must provide respirators and respirator safety training where needed to protect workers’ health.

  2. When respirators are required, employers must establish a written RP program that assures that the activities below will be carried out.

  3. When employees wear respirators when they are not required to, the employer must establish a partial RP program to ensure that respirator use itself does not harm the worker.

  4. Employers must assess whether respirators are needed and provide the appropriate type.

  5. Employers must make sure that employees are medically fit to wear respirators and that tight-fitting respirators have the proper respirator fit test.

  6. Employers must ensure that workers wear their respirators appropriately and that equipment is properly cleaned and maintained.

  7. Employers must provide safety training to workers to use respirators properly.

  8. Employers must keep records to document that the preceding steps have been carried out and periodically evaluate their RP program

Written Respirator Program

Incident Investigations | Your Safety Department

Incident investigations are just hard work. Not only must one deal with determining and mitigating the cause of the incidents but he/she will also be exposed to the human factor of the injured party and/or their family.

Prevention of incidents is always our primary goal but, when accidents do happen significant learning can occur that can help organizations prevent their recurrence.

Our safety personnel are trained to use a number of root cause analysis methods dependent upon the circumstances of the incident to be investigated. Root Cause Analysis methods include TapRoot, events and causal factor charting, change analysis, barrier analysis, tree diagram analysis, 5 Whys, Pareto analysis, and Realtycharting analysis.

Whether your need someone to lead your organization through an incident investigation or just want a third-party advisor to assist with key elements of the investigation Your Safety Department, LLC can help.

Your Company may well be at risk to regulatory citations, or worse yet, a serious or debilitating injury that could cost your business millions.

Don't delay - call Your Safety Department, LLC today to arrange for a FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION to determine how we can help!

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Safety Compliance Inspections

Your Safety DepartmentSM

Safety Compliance Inspections are essential worksite safety analysis tools which include internal safety audits and worksite inspections. Every worksite should be regularly inspected to identify hazards and potential ways to remove them. Effective worksite compliance inspections help to identify the unsafe acts and unsafe conditions which contribute to the majority of incidents that occur on a worksite.

Once hazards are identified we help you take the necessary steps to correct them or to reduce their effect and prevent unsafe and unhealthful exposures.

Let Your Safety DepartmentSM help you achieve improved safety performance and regulatory compliance by initiating regular and documented Safety Compliance Inspections for your facility or workplace environment.

Your Company may well be at risk of regulatory citations, or worse yet, a serious or debilitating injury that could cost your business millions.

Don't delay - call Your Safety DepartmentSM today to arrange for a FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION to determine how we can help!

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Risk Assessments | Your Safety Department

Risk assessments are an integral part of any safety management system and are designed to identify the risks in the workplace before an incident occurs. Risk is present in nearly every facet of life and if you don't proactively seek to find it, eventually it will find you. Risk assessments help you to proactively assess, manage, and mitigate the risks to people, the environment and the plant and equipment in your work environments.

Developing a Risk Assessment Plan is this first step towards success. We help you achieve this by identifying the risk in your work environment, documenting the procedural steps when working with and without controls and determining the most effective and reasonable hazards controls to be put in place.

We can help you to identify, categorize, and mitigate the risk in your work environment by assessing the impact, cost of mitigation, contingency planning, reduction of risk, and probability to exposure.

Whether your Company needs help with developing the Risk Assessment Plan or a third party view of the potential risks in your work environment let Your Safety Department, LLC help you!

Your Company may well be at risk to regulatory citations, or worse yet, a serious or debilitating injury that could cost your business millions.

Don't delay - call Your Safety Department, LLC today to arrange for a FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION to determine how we can help!

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Safety Culture | Your Safety Department

Do you know what your Safety Culture is? Every organization has a culture but, is it the right one? We can help you assess and modify your Safety Culture through the use of perception surveys between management, supervisors, and employees, checking the beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors against the expectations of organizational principles, and developing safety processes that help your organization achieve the culture you want.

Download "Creating Your Safety Culture" HSE Leadership Training document for "free" and learn how to change the safety culture in your organization.

Your Company may well be at risk of regulatory citations, or worse yet, a serious or debilitating injury that could cost your business millions.

Don't delay - call Your Safety Department, LLC today to arrange for a FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION to determine how we can help!

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