Variability of Respirator Fit Test Panels - NIOSH Study Results - Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The purpose of this interactive webinar is to provide a description and results of a recent NIOSH study to assess the fluctuation between bivariate panels used in respirator fit testing.

Employers rely on National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)-approved respirators to protect employees from airborne toxic contaminants. As the last line of protection for workers, respirators must be designed and manufactured to perform reliably. They must also be tested for compliance to a baseline performance level. The performance of the facepiece-to-face seal and other potential sources of leakage are critical for half-facepiece air-purifying respirators since the potential leak areas determine the amount of contaminated air the worker might inhale. In the early 1970's, the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory developed respirator fit test panels using detailed anthropometric data to evaluate this leakage. Since that time, these panels have been and continue to be used in respirator research, design, and certification. However, based on a 2003 survey of approximately 4,000 respirator users, the NIOSH developed new respirator fit test panels (i.e., bivariate and principle component analysis in 2007. It is important that panels comprised of different subjects provide comparable results when the same half-facepiece respirator is tested.