Respirator Fit Testing

---

Respirators protect hospital employees from harmful particles in the air.  

Annual respirator fit testing is vitally important for each employee and mandated by OSHA Respiratory Protection guidelines (OSHA 1910.134).  

Yearly testing of personal respirators can seem like an administrative hassle or waste of valuable time. Employees sometimes feel that they don’t need to be retested because they are using the same respirator or model as they were last year. 

The truth is that, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), as many as 10% of subjects failed a fit test after a one-year interval, in spite of using the exact same make, model, and size respirator. NIOSH also confirms that respirator fit can simply change over time. Since the health risks are so significant, it’s important to test respirator fit yearly. 

Fit testing is a quick, accurate, efficient test. Most employers elect to use outside qualified specialists to administer annual fit testing for their employees. Safety Resources has performed thousands of fit tests on hospital employees throughout the country.