Respirator Fit Testing: What It Is and Why Your Worksite Needs It
Keeping construction workers safe is your top priority. Ensuring equipment is in good repair, you’ve got a handle on fall hazards and that everyone is properly trained for their duties are obvious enough risks to mitigate, but what about hazards in the air your workers are breathing?
Construction projects can bring about a whole host of respiratory hazards, putting your workers at risk of acute and chronic illnesses that can turn into long-term, costly workers’ comp claims. Respirators should be part of your crew’s standard-issue personal protective equipment (PPE), but ensuring your workers have respirators that are properly fitted, rated for the hazards they face and are being used correctly is important to keeping them safe and healthy.
What Is Respirator Fit Testing?
Respirator fit testing ensures that an individual’s respirator properly fits their face and provides adequate protection against airborne particles, dust, fumes and vapors. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines require that all workers using respirators be tested to verify that the device forms a tight seal on the individual’s face before it can be used on the worksite.
There are two types of respirator fit testing: qualitative and quantitative.
- Qualitative fit testing uses a testing agent, such as a bitter or sweet solution, to test whether the wearer can smell, taste or involuntarily coughs when wearing the respirator. This type of testing is pass/fail; if the wearer detects the testing agent, the respirator and its fit fail the testing.
- Quantitative fit testing is a more precise testing method that uses specialized equipment to measure the amount of leakage into the respirator. This type of testing provides a numerical value — the “fit factor” — and ensures a more accurate assessment of the respirator’s effectiveness in protecting the wearer.
Why Respirator Fit Testing Is Essential for Construction Sites
Construction sites are full of potential respiratory hazards, including dust from cutting and grinding materials, chemical fumes from paints and solvents, and harmful gases from heavy machinery. Without proper protection, your workers are at a higher risk of developing respiratory issues that range from minor irritation to severe diseases.
Some common respiratory issues in the construction industry include:
- Silicosis
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- Mesothelioma
- Asbestosis
- Lung cancer
- Occupational asthma
- Lung infections
- Sarcoidosis
- Interstitial lung diseases
Not only are these diseases often debilitating for workers, shortening their lifespans and decreasing their quality of life, they can become a significant cost for your firm. OSHA fines, workers’ compensation claims and recurrent need to hire workers to replace those out with an illness can pose a significant expense.
Testing the proper fit of a respirator, and ensuring your workers are utilizing them whenever necessary, is key to keeping workers healthy and reducing your respiratory illness-related costs.
How an Onsite Occupational Health Provider Can Help With Respirator Fit Testing
Working with an onsite occupational healthcare provider allows you to streamline your respirator fit testing process, decreasing the work interruption and costs related to this crucial process. Here are some ways an occupational healthcare provider can improve your respirator fit testing process.
Convenient Access
Your occupational healthcare team is already onsite, staffing your onsite clinic. Adding respirator fit testing onsite provides your workers with convenient access to this crucial testing, reducing the amount of travel they must do to access these tests and improving compliance.
Workers can visit the onsite clinic during breaks or before or after work to test out their respirators, knowing they’ll get quick answers and not have to schedule a special appointment with an offsite provider.
Reduced Downtime
Respirator fit testing is essential for your workers’ safety and maintaining worksite compliance, but coordinating it is also a huge headache. Workers must travel to an offsite testing provider, and ensuring everyone gets there can be a struggle.
With an onsite respirator fit testing solution, you don’t have to worry about coordinating offsite testing. This reduces project downtime as workers can report for testing as part of their normal workday, quickly returning to their duties once testing is completed.
Tailored Fit Testing Solutions
Each worksite’s respiratory risks are unique, and some teams require a higher level of respirator fit testing to ensure worker safety.
An onsite testing program — where your occupational health providers already know your worksite and its unique risks — allows you to offer tailored fit testing to maintain a higher level of protection to meet your worksite needs. Workers also can report for testing as often as they feel necessary, something that’s difficult to coordinate with an offsite fit testing program.
Integration With Other Occupational Health Services
Respirator fit testing is just one part of a larger program ensuring proper PPE usage and worker safety. Your onsite respirator fit testing program can be integrated with your other occupational healthcare offerings to create a comprehensive safety culture.
Offering respirator fit testing as a larger program surrounding respiratory health, such as screenings for potential lung diseases, use of PPE and educational programs surrounding signs and symptoms of respiratory diseases can prime your workers for more vigilance in wearing their respirators, preventing some instances of disease.
Benefits of Worksite Respirator Fit Testing
Onsite respirator fit testing has a variety of benefits for your project and your workers.
Improve Regulatory Compliance
OSHA regulations require comprehensive fit testing for all respirators worn on the jobsite. However, it can be difficult to know when workers are using new respirators, whether they’ve been tested and ensure that all workers report for offsite fit testing.
Having your respirator fit testing program onsite allows for easy access to these tests, making it more likely that all workers will comply with testing every time. If your site supervisor notices a worker wearing a new respirator, or one that looks like it may be ill-fitting, that individual can be sent immediately for fit testing at the onsite clinic — no additional coordinating or scheduling necessary.
Reduced Risk of Respiratory Illnesses
Properly fitting respirators are one of the most important factors in preventing acute and chronic respiratory diseases. Ensuring that every worker has a properly fitting and functioning respirator means you’re taking an important step toward keeping workers healthy.
The more you can prevent respiratory illnesses, the more benefits you and your workers will see, including:
- Better health
- Improved work performance and productivity
- Reduced absenteeism
- Decreased risk of workers’ comp claims and OSHA violations
- Healthcare cost savings
- Reduced worker turnover
Increased Worker Trust and Confidence
Improving workers’ trust in your firm is key to keeping quality workers employed long term. If workers don’t feel that you take their health and wellbeing seriously, they will be more likely to look for employment elsewhere and, as a result, leave you short-handed.
Offering onsite respirator fit testing, along with other occupational healthcare services, is a visible sign that you care about your workers’ health. They know that you take their wellbeing seriously, and they will feel more confident in you as an employer.
Your Worksite Occupational Healthcare Partner
At Medcor, we take our job of offering comprehensive occupational health solutions to construction sites seriously. Through onsite and mobile clinics, safety staffing and training and 24/7 injury and illness triage, we provide tailored options to meet every worksite’s unique needs. Speak with an advocate today.