Air-Purifying Respirator: A respirator
with an air-purifying filter, cartridge, or canister that
removes specific air contaminants by passing ambient air through
the air-purifying element.
Assigned Protection Factor (APF): The minimum
anticipated protection provided by a properly functioning
respirator or class of respirators to a given percentage of
properly fitted and trained users.
Atmosphere-Supplying Respirator: A respirator
that supplies the respirator user with breathing air from
a source independent of the ambient atmosphere, and includes
supplied-air respirators (SARs) and self-contained breathing
apparatus (SCBA) units.
Auxiliary SCBA: An auxiliary unit means
that the SAR unit includes a separate air bottle to provide
a reserve source of air should the airline become damaged.
The auxiliary unit shares the same mask and regulator, and
enables the SAR to function as an SCBA if needed.
Breakthrough: The penetration of challenge
material(s) through a gas or a vapor air-purifying element.
The quantity or extent of breakthrough during service life
testing is often referred to as the percentage of the input
concentration.
Canister or Cartridge: A container with
a filter, sorbent, or catalyst, or combination of these items,
which removes specific contaminants from the air passed through
the container.
Continuous Flow: A respirator that maintains
air flow at all times, rather than only on demand. However,
it may not maintain positive pressure within the mask at all
times. Negative pressure conditions may occur during inhalation
involving strenuous activity.
Demand Respirator: A respirator in which
the pressure inside the facepiece in relation to the immediate
environment is positive during exhalation and negative during
inhalation.
Disposable Respirators: A respirator that
is discarded after the end of its recommended period of use,
after excessive resistance or physical damage, or when odor
breakthrough or other warning indicators render the respirator
unsuitable for further use.
Emergency Respirator Use Situation: A situation
that requires the use of respirators due to the unplanned
generation of a hazardous atmosphere (often of unknown composition)
caused by an accident, mechanical failure, or other means
and that requires evacuation of personnel or immediate entry
for rescue or corrective action.
Employee Exposure: Exposure to a concentration
of an airborne contaminant that would occur if the employee
were not using respiratory protection.
End-Of-Service-Life Indicator (ESLI): A
system that warns the respirator user of the approach of the
end of adequate respiratory protection; for example, that
the sorbent is approaching saturation or is no longer effective.
Escape Gas Mask: A gas mask that consists
of a half-mask facepiece or mouthpiece, a canister, and associated
connections, and that is designed for use during escape-only
from hazardous atmospheres.
Escape Only Respirator: Respiratory devices
that are designed for use only during escape from hazardous
atmospheres.
Filter or Air-Purifying Element: A component
used in respirators to remove solid or liquid aerosols from
the inspired air.
Filtering Facepiece: A particulate respirator
with a filter as an integral part of the facepiece or with
the entire facepiece composed of the filtering medium.
Fit Factor: A quantitative measure of the
fit of a specific respirator facepiece to a particular individual.
Fit Test: Means the use of a protocol to
qualitatively or quantitatively evaluate the fit of a respirator
on an individual. (See also Qualitative fit test QLFT and
Quantitative fit test QNFT.)
Gas: An aeriform fluid that is in a gaseous
state at standard temperature and pressure.
Hazard ratio: A number obtained by dividing
the concentration of a contaminant by its exposure limit.
High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) Filter:
A filter that is at least 99.97% efficient in removing monodisperse
particles of 0.3 micrometers in diameter. The equivalent NIOSH
42 CFR 84 particulate filters are the N100, R100, and P100
filters.
Hood or Helmet: is a respirator component
which covers the wearer’s head and neck, or head,
neck, and shoulders, and is supplied with incoming respirable
air for the wearer to breathe. It may include a head harness
and connection for a breathing tube.
Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health (IDLH):
Conditions that pose an immediate threat to life or health
or conditions that pose an immediate threat of severe exposure
to contaminants, such as radioactive materials, which are
likely to have adverse cumulative or delayed effects on health.
(See subparagraph 3 on page 20 for more information on IDLH
conditions).
Interior Structural Firefighting: The physical
activity of fire suppression, rescue or both, inside of buildings
or enclosed structures which are involved in a fire situation
beyond the incipient stage.
Maximum Use Concentration (MUC): Maximum
use concentration (MUC) means the maximum atmospheric concentration
of a hazardous substance from which an employee can be expected
to be protected when wearing a respirator, and is determined
by the assigned protection factor of the respirator or class
of respirators and the exposure limit of the hazardous substance.
The MUC usually can be determined mathematically by multiplying
the assigned protection factor specified for a respirator
by the NIOSH recommended exposure limit (REL), permissible
exposure limit, short term exposure limit, ceiling limit,
peak limit, or any other exposure limit used for the hazardous
substance.
Mist: A liquid condensation particulate.
Negative Pressure Respirator: A tight-fitting
respirator in which the air pressure inside the facepiece
is negative during inhalation with respect to the ambient
air pressure outside the respirator.
Orinasal Respirator: A respirator that covers
the nose and mouth and that generally consists of a quarter-
or half-facepiece.
Oxygen Deficient Atmosphere: An atmosphere
which contains an oxygen partial pressure of less than 148
millimeters of mercury (19.5 percent by volume at sea level).
Physician or Other Licensed Health Care Professional
(PLHCP): Means an individual whose legally permitted
scope of practice (i.e., license, registration, or certification)
allows him or her to independently provide, or be delegated
the responsibility to provide, some or all of the health care
services required for medical evaluation to wear a respirator.
Planned or Unplanned Entry into an IDLH Environment,
an Environment of Unknown Concentration of Hazardous Contaminant,
or an Environment of Unknown Composition: A situation
in which respiratory devices are recommended to provide adequate
protection to workers entering an area where the contaminant
concentration is above the IDLH or is unknown.
Potential Occupational Carcinogen: Any substance,
or combination or mixture of substances, which causes an increased
incidence of benign and/or malignant neoplasms, or a substantial
decrease in the latency period between exposure and onset
of neoplasms in humans or in one or more experimental mammalian
species as the result of any oral, respiratory, or dermal
exposure, or any other exposure which results in the induction
of tumors at a site other than the site of administration.
This definition also includes any substance that is metabolized
into one or more potential occupational carcinogens by mammals
(29 CFR 1990.103, OSHA Cancer Policy).
Powered Air-Purifying Respirator (PAPR):
Means a device equipped with a facepiece, hood, or helmet,
breathing tube, canister, cartridge, filter, canister with
filter, or cartridge with filter, and a blower.
Pressure Demand Respirator: A respirator
in which the pressure inside the facepiece in relation to
the immediate environment is positive during both inhalation
and exhalation.
Qualitative Fit Test (QLFT): A pass/fail
fit test to assess the adequacy of respirator fit that relies
on the individual's response to the test agent.
Quantitative Fit Test (QNFT): Means an assessment
of the adequacy of respirator fit by numerically measuring
the amount of leakage into the respirator.
Recommended Exposure Limit (REL): An 8-
or 10-hour time-weighted average (TWA) or ceiling (C) exposure
concentration recommended by NIOSH that is based on an evaluation
of the health effects data.
Respirator: Means any device designed to
provide the wearer with respiratory protection against inhalation
of a hazardous atmosphere.
Respirator Program Administrator: The person
responsible for all aspects of the respirator program with
full authority to make decisions to ensure its success. The
administrator must have sufficient knowledge (obtained by
training or experience) to develop and implement the program.
Preferably, he/she should have a background in industrial
hygiene, safety, health care or engineering.
Respiratory Inlet Covering: The portion
of a respirator that forms the protective barrier between
the user's respiratory tract and an air-purifying device or
breathing air source, or both. It may be a facepiece, a helmet,
a hood, a suit, or a mouthpiece respirator with nose clamp.
Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA):
An atmosphere-supplying respirator for which the breathing
air source is designed to be carried by the user.
Service Life: The length of time required
for an air-purifying element to reach a specific effluent
concentration. Service life is determined by the type of substance
being removed, the concentration of the substance, the ambient
temperature, the specific element being tested (cartridge
or canister), the flow rate resistance, and the selected breakthrough
value. The service life for a self-contained breathing apparatus
(SCBA) is the period of time, as determined by the NIOSH certification
tests, in which adequate breathing gas is supplied.
Simulated Workplace Protection Factor (SWPF):
A surrogate measure of the workplace protection provided by
a respirator.
Supplied-Air Respirator (SAR) or Airline Respirator:
An atmosphere-supplying respirator for which the source of
breathing air is not designed to be carried by the user.
Tight-Fitting Facepiece: A respiratory inlet
covering that forms a complete seal with the face.
User Seal Check: An action conducted by
the respirator user to determine if the respirator is properly
seated to the face.
Vapor: The gaseous state of a substance
that is solid or liquid at temperatures and pressures normally
encountered.
Workplace Protection Factor (WPF): A measure
of the protection provided in the workplace by a properly
functioning respirator when correctly worn and used.
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