NIOSH testimony to Department of Labor on proposed occupational safety and health standard for fire brigades by R. M. Ronk, August 28, 1979

Technical Report · Tue Aug 28 04:00:00 EDT 1979

OSTI ID:6015194

The testimony concerns the views of NIOSH in support of OSHA's proposed requirement that interior structural fire fighters wear positive pressure self contained breathing apparatus. NIOSH views the requirement as essential to protecting the lives of firefighters in such critical situations, based on their experience in testing approximately 1500 types of respirators. The only way to safeguard the wearer adequately is to maintain a slight positive pressure in the facepiece. Various investigators have examined the face seal leakage problem and have found that field usage does result in a significantly higher variance in penetration than in strictly controlled laboratory tests. NIOSH is attempting to develop a mathematical model which can be used to make valid predictions of face seal penetration with high levels of confidence. Until a proven quantitative facepiece fitting system is devised, it is imperative that positive pressure apparatus be used for critical situations.

• Research Organization: National Inst. for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6015194
• Report Number(s): PB-91-153668/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290300 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
Health
& Safety
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540120* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
CONTROL
FIRE FIGHTING
INHALATION
INTAKE
MATERIALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NIOSH
PERFORMANCE TESTING
POLLUTION CONTROL
POLLUTION REGULATIONS
REGULATIONS
RESPIRATORS
STANDARDS
TESTING
TOXIC MATERIALS
US DOL
US ORGANIZATIONS