Respiratory Protection

Penn State's Respiratory Protection Program applies to all employee operations where respirator use is either required, or voluntary, and during routine and non-routine tasks, such as during response actions involving spills or leaks of hazardous substances, and during fire-fighting, rescue, and public defense activities.

Respirator use may occur within a wide spectrum of Penn State facilities and operations ranging from the arts and agriculture, to laboratory/engineering, construction, maintenance, police, and emergency response operations. Respirator use may be necessary to protect employees from highly toxic contaminants, or where exposure levels to contaminants exceed OSHA permissible exposure limits (PELs) or other thresholds, and/or where other controls or ventilation are unavailable, or where such controls are inadequate for complete protection.  Penn State's respiratory protection program is based upon requirements of the OSHA respiratory protection standard (29 CFR 1910.134).