1—Background
In 1972, the Departments of the Interior and of Health, Education, and Welfare issued substantial revisions to the Federal regulation in 30 CFR Part 11. This regulation specifies the performance tests and certification criteria for industrial respirators used to protect workers from hazardous atmospheres in American workplaces. Under this regulation the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) jointly issue approval certificates to respirator manufacturers. Currently more than 1,600 NIOSH/MSHA certifications are in effect for more than 7,000 industrial respirator models.
Up to 6.6 million American workers use NIOSH-certified respirators, either full time or part time, to protect themselves.from hazards in their workplaces. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations require that NIOSH/MSHA-certified respirators be used by many of these workers. Regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) also require the use of NIOSH-certified respirators.
Many workers must wear their NIOSH-certified respirators as an involuntary condition of employment. Hundreds of thousands of American workers wear NIOSH-certified respirators in highly toxic and lethal environments in which a momentary lapse in respiratory protection can result in serious injury or death.
During the last 20 years, NIOSH and MSHA have made only minor amendments to the certification test criteria promulgated in 1972.[1] Then on August 27, 1987, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) published in the Federal Register a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for certification of respiratory protective devices.[2] The Notice proposed a regulation for 42 CFR Part 84. Upon promulgation, 42 CFR Part 84 will replace 30 CFR Part 11. In the first NPRM, NIOSH proposed extensive changes in the current performance test requirements for certifying respirators.
A substantial portion of the respirators certified by NIOSH are air-purifying respirators equipped with DM or DFM filters. These filter respirators play a critical role in American workplaces in providing worker protection against airborne chemical
