Maintaining the health and safety of workers in the United States and globally is accomplished in part by reducing hazardous exposures through the use of personal protective equipment. Personal protective technologies (PPT) include respirators worn by construction workers and miners; protective clothing, respirators, and gloves worn by firefighters and mine rescue workers; and respirators and protective clothing worn by healthcare workers. An estimated 5 million workers are required to wear respirators in 1.3 million U.S. workplaces. For some occupations, such as firefighting, the worker's protective equipment is the only form of protection against life-threatening hazards; for other workers, the PPT is a supplement to ventilation and other environmental, engineering, or administrative hazard controls. In the United States, federal responsibility for civilian worker PPT is integral to the mission of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). This book examines the NIOSH Personal Protective Technology Program (PPT Program) and specifically focuses on the relevance and impact of this program in reducing hazardous exposures and improving worker health and safety.
"The National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL) was created by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in 2001. Its mission is to prevent disease, injury and death for millions of workers who rely on personal protective equipment including miners, emergency responders, and healthcare, agricultural, construction, and industrial workers. NPPTL brings together experts from many disciplines dedicated to reducing the risk to workers of job-related injury, illness, and death. NPPTL, through targeted partnerships, research, service, and communication, focuses on new and enhanced personal protective equipment for workers including first responders during terrorist attacks or other disasters." - NIOSHTIC-2
"NPPTL's resources include staff with world-recognized PPT expertise and facilities specifically equipped to carry out our mission. Staff possess unique expertise and experience in PPT research and development, respiratory protection technology, including metabolic and breathing simulation, open and closed circuit SCBA testing, and respirator testing using particulates, gases, and vapors. To achieve our mission, NPPTL: 1. Conducts work site surveillance of hazards for which PPT and PPE are used to protect workers, along with studies of patterns of PPT use. 2. Conducts laboratory and field research on the development and evaluation of innovative PPT and PPE. 3. Researches and develops criteria, standards, and guidelines relating to PPT performance, quality, reliability and efficacy. 4. Directs and carries out the NIOSH respirator certification program and related laboratory, field, quality, and records activities. 5. Produces and disseminates research findings, technical information, training materials, performance criteria, and recommendations for using PPE to improve worker protection. 6. Develops, studies, and assesses the effectiveness of communications and training approaches and technologies relating to PPT. NPPTL's four scientific focus areas are: 1. Respiratory Protection: Fill gaps in knowledge, methods, and measures for new NIOSH respirator performance, quality, and reliability standards; and provide recommendations for improving respiratory protection for a diverse user population. 2. Ensembles: Use a systems engineering approach for the design, development, evaluation, and integration of new technologies and performance, quality, and reliability standards for PPE ensembles. User communities, such as emergency responders, firefighters, mine workers, and health care workers, will have unique PPE ensembles developed specifically to protect against known occupational hazards. Ensembles will be reviewed frequently for appropriateness to emerging hazards. 3. Human Performance: Conduct studies designed to measure human physiological, biomechanical, cognitive, and exercise performance responses to wearing PPE and PPE ensembles, and then modify the ensembles to improve human performance. 4. Sensors: Develop, evaluate, and integrate effective residual life indicators and predictive models for protective clothing and respirators into PPE ensembles. NPPTL's products and services include: 1. Peer-reviewed scientific research studies, analyses, and reports to fill PPT knowledge gaps. 2. Standards for advanced PPT to assure appropriate system and guidance to workers. 3. Evaluations of technologies and recommendations for use. 4. Approval of respirators meeting NIOSH certification standards. 5. Quality assurance (QA) and compliance investigations triggered by suspected malfunctions of NIOSH-approved respirators. 6. Technical assistance and advice to regulating agencies, leading to improved science-based enforcement standards. 7. Policies for product certifications and standards. 8. Training and education. 9. User guidance documents (safety alerts, guidelines). We strive to make a difference for American workers and emergency responders who rely on the personal protective equipment we are developing to keep them safe and healthy on the job. " - NIOSHTIC-2
The National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL) is a Division of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). NPPTL prevents work-related injury, illness, and death by advancing the state of knowledge and application of personal protective technologies (PPT). NPPTL supports more than 20 million U.S. workers who rely on this equipment (e.g., respirators, clothing, gowns, gloves, eye protection and other types of protective gear) to keep them safe from on-the-job hazards.
NIOSH and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) share responsibility for overseeing respiratory protection in the workplace and have established regulations for this purpose. Specifically, NIOSH has issued regulations which define respirator testing and certification. OSHA has issued regulations which define conditions under which employers are required to maintain respiratory protection programs in general industry, shipyards, marine terminals, and construction. In 2005, NIOSH contracted with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to study the NIOSH-sponsored Anthrotech study along with its supporting information and reports, and to examine and report on the adequacy and relevance of the study protocol, the analyses conducted, the resulting anthropometric dataset, and the appropriateness of the respirator fit-test panels derived from the new dataset. Assessment of the NIOSH Head-and-Face Anthropometric Survey of U.S. Respirator Users focuses on the establishment of the scientific base required for certification standards of respirators, not their use in the workplace. This report describes and analyzes the anthropometric measurements performed by Anthrotech for its NIOSH-sponsored study. This report looks at the survey methods used by Anthrotech in the study, and examines how Anthrotech analyzed its data to derive fit-test panels and suggests some ways that analysis could be improved. This report discusses future directions, pointing toward further analyses of the data and offers suggestions for moving from research to practice.
To address approaches to the respirator approval process in the current landscape for both occupational and non-occupational use of respirators, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Standing Committee on Personal Protective Equipment for Workplace Safety and Health convened a virtual workshop, Current Issues in the Assessment of Respiratory Protective Devices: Nontraditional Workers and Public Use on August 4â€"5, 2020. Additionally, the workshop considered gaps in respiratory protection for outdoor workers and the general public. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.
The NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards presents information taken from the NIOSH/OSHA Occupational Health Guidelines for Chemical Hazards, from National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) criteria documents and Current Intelligence Bulletins, and from recognized references in the fields of industrial hygiene, occupational medicine, toxicology, and analytical chemistry. The information is presented in tabular form to provide a quick, convenient source of information on general industrial hygiene practices. The information in the Pocket Guide includes chemical structures or formulas, identification codes, synonyms, exposure limits, chemical and physical properties, incompatibilities and reactivities, measurement methods, respirator selections, signs and symptoms of exposure, and procedures for emergency treatment.
The agriculture, forestry, and fishing sectors are the cornerstone of industries that produce food, fiber, and biofuel. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducts research in order to improve worker safety and health in these sectors. This National Research Council book reviews the NIOSH Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Program to evaluate the 1) relevance of its work to improvements in occupational safety and health and 2) the impact of research in reducing workplace illnesses and injuries. The assessment reveals that the program has made meaningful contributions to improving worker safety and health in these fields. To enhance the relevance and impact of its work and fulfill its mission, the NIOSH Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Program should provide national leadership, coordination of research, and activities to transfer findings, technologies, and information into practice. The program will also benefit from establishing strategic goals and implementing a comprehensive surveillance system in order to better identify and track worker populations at risk.
Protecting the health and safety of health care workers is vital to the health of each of us. Preparing for and responding to a future influenza pandemic or to a sustained outbreak of an airborne transmissible disease requires a high-level commitment to respiratory protection for health care workers across the wide range of settings in which they work and the jobs that they perform. Keeping health care workers healthy is an ethical commitment both in terms of addressing the occupational risks faced by health care workers and of providing for the continuity of patient care and services needed to maintain the health of individuals and communities. During a public health emergency, challenges will arise concerning the availability of respiratory protective devices (i.e., respirators). Reusable respirators (specifically, reusable half-facepiece elastomeric respirators) are the standard respiratory protection device used in many industries, and they provide an option for use in health care that has to date not been fully explored. The durability and reusability of elastomeric respirators make them desirable for stockpiling for emergencies, where the need for large volumes of respirators can be anticipated. However, they are used infrequently in health care. Reusable Elastomeric Respirators in Health Care explores the potential for the use of elastomeric respirators in the U.S. health care system with a focus on the economic, policy, and implementation challenges and opportunities. This report examines the practicability of elastomeric use in health care on a routine basis and during an influenza pandemic or other large aerosol-transmissible outbreak, when demand for respiratory protective devices by U.S. health care personnel may be larger than domestic supplies. The report also addresses the issues regarding emergency stockpile management of elastomeric respiratory protective devices.
When you purchase a product, you expect it to work. Construction workers on high-rise buildings need to be confident that their safety harnesses will arrest a fall. Firefighters need to know that their gloves and other protective equipment can withstand high temperatures. Healthcare workers administering highly toxic chemotherapy agents need to know that their gloves will withstand penetration. For personal protective technologies (PPT)-where the major purpose of the product is to protect the wearer against a hazard-a deficit in product effectiveness can mean injury, illness, or death. Examining the extent to which products meet specific performance or design criteria is the focus of conformity assessment efforts. For PPT conformity assessment, the ultimate goal is preventing worker illness, injury, or death from hazardous working conditions. Certifying Personal Protective Technologies focuses on conformity assessment for occupational PPT-ensuring that PPT are effective in preventing or reducing hazardous exposures or situations that workers face in their jobs. Because respirators already have an extensive testing and conformity assessment process in place, this book specifically addresses conformity assessment processes for other types of PPT, including eye and face protection, gloves, hearing protectors, and protective clothing.
