Section 3.6
Respiratory Protection Program
Glossary
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.
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.
Emergency Situation: Any occurrence such as, but not limited to, equipment failure, rupture of containers, or failure of control equipment that may or does result in an uncontrolled significant release of an airborne contaminant.
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 Indication (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-only Respirator: A respirator intended to be used only for emergency exit.
Filter or Air Purifying Element: A component used in respirators to remove solid or liquid aerosols from the inspired air.
Filtering Facepiece (Dust Mask): A negative pressure particulate respirator with a filter as an integral part of the facepiece or with the entire facepiece composed of the filtering medium.
Fit Test: The use of a protocol to qualitatively or quantitatively evaluate the fit of a respirator on an individual.
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.
Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health (IDLH): An atmosphere that poses an immediate threat to life, would cause irreversible adverse health effects, or would impair an individual’s ability to escape from a dangerous atmosphere.
Negative Pressure Respirator: A respirator in which the air pressure inside the facepiece is negative during inhalation with respect to the ambient air pressure outside the respirator.
Oxygen Deficient Atmosphere: An atmosphere with an oxygen content below 19.5% by volume.
Physician or Other Licensed Health Care Professional (PLHCP): An individual whose legally permitted scope of practice (e.g., license, registration or certification) allows him or her to independently provide, some or all of the health care services required by the standard.
Positive Pressure Respirator: A respirator in which the pressure inside the respiratory inlet covering exceeds the ambient air pressure outside the respirator.
Powered Air-purifying Respirator (PAPR): An air-purifying respirator that uses a blower to force the ambient air through air-purifying elements to the inlet covering.
Pressure Demand Respirator: A positive pressure atmosphere-supplying respirator that admits breathing air to the facepiece when the positive pressure is reduced inside the facepiece by inhalation.
Qualitative Fit Test (QLFT): A pass/fail fit test to assess the adequacy of respiratory fit that relies on the individual’s response to the test agent.
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 period of time that a respirator, filter or sorbent, or other respiratory equipment provides adequate protection to the wearer.
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.
User Seal Check: An action conducted by the respirator user to determine if the respirator is properly seated to the face.