AN EVALUATION OF RESPIRATOR MAINTENANCE REQUIREMENTS

A telephone survey was developed as part of a pilot study to evaluate the inspection, cleaning,maintenance, and storage aspects of respirato ry protection programs (RPP). Regulations and consensus standards such as those published by the Occupational Safety and Health Administrati on in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) or the American National S tandards Institute (ANSI) require or recommend that RPP contain elemen ts that ensure respirators provide proper protection. A great deal of research has been done to evaluate the effectiveness of new! respirato rs; however, little research has been conducted to evaluate how respir ators behave over time in real industrial settings. Respirator inspect ion, cleaning, maintenance, a nd storage are significant factors in de termining how well a respirator continues to perform. The telephone su rvey was developed by reviewing the requirements and recommendations o f CFR 1910.134 and ANSI Z88.2-1980. Approximately 30 companies were se lected based on their use of negative air-purifying respirators. Most of the companies represented the hardgoods manufacturing or service in dustries. Although the majority of companies were meeting requirements , responses indicated that the following improvements in RPP were nece ssary: (1) inspection of all respirator parts should be carried out be fore and after each use, (2) replacement parts should be made readily available on site, (3) regular cleaning should be performed, and (4) m ore hands-on practice with respirators and their maintenance should be incorporated into training sessions.