III. Methods for Worker Protection—Controlling Airborne Transmission of Tuberculosis
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be exposed to some aerosolized droplet nuclei at certain locations and during certain procedures. If an infectious person is there, the risk of infection is assumed to exist.
Therefore, for a limited range of locations and procedures, the full hierarchy of controls is necessary. For tuberculosis, these measures include the use of effective and reliable personal respiratory protection in addition to the administrative and engineering controls. Respirators can never be considered an adequate substitute for administrative and engineering controls. These NIOSH guidelines for the selection and use of respirators assume that all indicated administrative and engineering isolation precautions have been rigorously implemented as a prerequisite.
