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Employees who wear glasses may struggle to wear both their glasses and a respirator. In particular, this affects employees requiring a full-face respirator or SCBA. However, OSHA requires employers to provide employees who wear respirators with an optical corrective lens when necessary.
Even though a respirator may not be required for the job you’re doing, you may want to use a respirator for protection while doing certain tasks. Though fit testing is technically not required in this scenario, it is important to ensure that wearing the respirator will not be detrimental to your health. OSHA still requires certain obligations from your employer.
Per the OSHA Standard, fit testing is required prior to initial use, whenever a different respirator facepiece (size, model or make) is used, and at least annually thereafter.
In accordance with OSHA 29 CFR 1910.134, if it is mandatory to wear an N95 respirator for your work, a fit test is required.
A fit test is required for all negative or positive pressure tight-fitting facepiece respirators. This includes both supplied-air respirators and air-purifying respirators, such as filtering facepiece (N95), half mask, full facepiece and powered-air purifying respirators.
All facial hair that may impede a tight seal for a facepiece must be shaven. Neatly trimmed, closely shaved facial hair, such as small goatees or mustaches, may be acceptable while wearing a respirator. Full beards are not acceptable. According to OSHA 29 CFR 1910.134: The employer shall not permit respirators with tight-fitting facepieces to be worn by employees who have:
Quantitative fit testing measures the precise amount of leakage into any tight-fitting facepieces. Instead of relying on your senses, the test is performed by a machine calculating the measurements. According to OSHA regulations, there are three acceptable quantitative fit test methods: general aerosol, ambient aerosol and controlled negative pressure, which are all available with Examinetics.
Qualitative fit testing is a subjective pass/fail method used on half-masks that rely on a user’s sense of taste to detect air leakage from the respirator. The test uses Bitrex (a harmless, bitter-tasting chemical) or Saccharin (a sweet-tasting chemical), which will determine whether the mask passes or fails.
A respirator fit test determines whether or not a respirator fits over an individual’s nose and mouth and makes a tight seal to protect from hazardous airborne particles. There are two types of fit tests. A qualitative fit test determines if the person being tested can smell/taste external agents through the mask. A quantitative fit test uses a machine to assess the adequacy of the seal that is formed around the face by having the person do various exercises and maneuvers to detect potential leakage.
