Respiratory Protection

(contact: Jerry Moreland, jmoreland@wsu.edu)

Employees exposed, or potentially exposed to respiratory hazards such as dusts, mists, fumes, and/or vapors may be required to wear respiratory protection. The hierarchy of hazard control dictates that exposures would preferentially be controlled by eliminating the hazard, substituting a less hazardous chemical or product, using engineering controls such as local exhaust ventilation, or implementing administrative controls such as work methods prior to using personal protective equipment (PPE). Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) conducts hazard assessments to evaluate whether respiratory protection is necessary. Please contact your local EH&S service provider for assistance with a hazard assessment, in Pullman at 335-3041 or visit their website.

Annual Respiratory Fit Session

Prior to the start of field session, each year representatives from EHS Pullman will schedule a site visit. If you need respirator fit testing please review and follow the instructions on the EHS website.

Respiratory Medical Approvals

Beginning in 2020 there is a new procedure to get respirator medical approvals, review the procedure.  We also have a new training procedure.  Instead of doing training for each fit test, we would like all respirator users to complete the Vivid respirator training, You need to click on WSU Safety Courses, and complete the PPE – Respiratory Protection course, which is the last course on that list. Then, each respirator user should be given a training form (doc), fill it out, and indicate that they completed the Vivid training. Each user will need to give this form to EHS when they come to their fit test, where the training will be completed (WSU-TFREC Hazard Waste Building) and they can ask any questions they have.  This will be their training record, which both parties need to sign when completed.  This, along with the new streamlined OSHA fit test procedures, will facilitate quicker fit testing.  It shouldn’t take more than twenty minutes for each fit test with this procedure.

After clicking on the two links below to access the Respirator Medical approvals you will see a login. Contact Jerry Moreland for the username and password.

Environmental Health and Safety Respiratory Protection website
MultiCare Occupational Medicine Vest Med app