Check out Safety Emporium for your N95, N99, and face shield needs.
(Note: This post is 14 years old and may contain outdated information.)
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2011 07:25:04 -0800
Reply-To: DCHAS-L Discussion List <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
Sender: DCHAS-L Discussion List <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
From: "Holland, Duv**At_Symbol_Here**CDCR" <Duv.Holland**At_Symbol_Here**CDCR.CA.GOV>
Subject: Re: Do surgical masks = 'respirators'?
In-Reply-To: <9375A4B942930D458099C4FB6E0874A893DF14C780**At_Symbol_Here**ricxs02.aristalabs.com>
To be considered a respirator, it needs to be NIOS
H
certified. The most common filtering facepiece type is an
N95.
The flimsy
little dust
masks that hardware stores often sell (not NIOSH certified, though a hardwa
re or
home repair store might sell N95 filtering facepiece respirators as well) a
nd
surgical masks are not considered respirators.<
/DIV>
Also, it is my understanding that the purpose of
a
surgical mask is to particulates *in* that could cause infectious disease t
o
others (wearing potentially already infected and surgical mask worn to prot
ect
others) while the purpose of a filtering facepiece respirator is to keep
airborne particulate contaminants *out* (keep them from entering the body o
f the
wearer). I'm not medical, so I could have this wrong, but I thought t
his
was their respective purposes.
All,
As an analytical laboratory, we operate under the Laboratory Standard
1910.1450 of the OSHA regulations. We have excellent engineering cont
rols,
and have done monitoring for the the atmosphere contaminants that would be
of
concern. We don’t meet the OSHA threshold for any of those.
That being said, we sometimes have to grind samples in knife mills, an
d
this can generate some dust (though still well below the threshold).
Per
1910.134 Appendix D (http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_
table=STANDARDS&p_id=9784)
we conduct and document training to ensure that our employees have a firm b
asis
upon which to choose a dust mask appropriate to their task and comfort.
Now, my toxicology group wants to order surgical masks, and since 1910
.134
defines a “respirator” as:
Filtering facepiece (dust mask) means a negative pressur
e
particulate respirator with a filter as an integral part of the facepiece <
U>or
with the entire facepiece composed of the filtering medium (emphasis
added).
In light of the above definition, I am forced to ask: is a surgi
cal
mask considered a ‘respirator’? Do I now need to document
a) that there is
no condition which requires use of a respirator/surgical mask/form o
f
protection in the toxicology section and b) that if not, all of the
toxicologists are also trained in accordance with Appendix D to 1910.134?
<sigh>
Dr. Bradley K. Norwood
Laboratory Director
Arista Laboratories
1941 Reymet Road
Richmond, VA 23237
(804) 271-5572 ext. 307
(804) 641-4641 (cell)
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