Todd Jerome Jenkins, MS, CSP, SMS, CHST, STSC

Safety Aficionado & Ph.D. Student

Weekly Safety Topic – What Are You Breathing

Everyone wears a hard hat, safety glasses, and gloves on most construction projects. Hard hats protect your head, gloves protect your hands and wearing safety glasses, goggles, or a face shield protects your eyes. We wear steel-toed boots to protect our feet. Are your lungs and airways protected from hazards? How often do you think about protecting your lungs? Do you know what’s in the air you are breathing? When is the last time anyone posted air monitoring results from trades that produce a large amount of dust? Do you know what work exposes you to asbestos, lead, nuisance dust, or silica? Or what chemicals that you work with that are hazardous such as paints, solvents, and adhesives? We don’t often think about respiratory protection because breathing is effortless, and we can’t see our lungs.
Every time you take a breath, your lungs are filled with oxygen. Your lungs and blood carry oxygen to all the organs in your body, including your brain. If you breathe in contaminated air, you might find that you gasp for air, such as inhaling exhaust fumes. Your organs will slow down, and your brain cells will die after a few minutes if you do not get enough oxygen. If you continue to breathe oxygen-deficient air for just a few more minutes, your brain will become damaged, your organs will fail, and you will eventually die.
Using a respirator when working in an oxygen-deficient, contaminated, or dirty, the dusty environment is imperative to keep your lungs healthy. As a safety precaution, it is required for you to test the air quality in every confined area where you work. For the most dangerous environments-those that are deemed to be immediately dangerous to life and health (IDLH), you will need to use either a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) or a supplied-air respirator with a backup supply of compressed air.
You may need to wear an air-purifying respirator that uses different cartridges or filters to clean the air before you breathe it in less hazardous environments. Some respirators cover only your mouth and nose, or masks cover your entire face. In some cases, a simple mask may be sufficient. Note that not all dust masks are NIOSH-approved. Don’t assume-check with your supervisor. Even if a dust mask is adequate, it still needs to fit correctly to work correctly.
Before wearing any respirator (except a filtering facepiece voluntarily), you must complete a form that a licensed healthcare provider must review. You will also need to complete a fit test to ensure a proper fit. Your employer must have a written respiratory protection plan. If your work activities involve using a respirator, get a copy of the plan. Read it thoroughly and ask your supervisor if you have any questions about how to use the respirator safely.
Respirators are personal protective equipment (PPE) designed to control exposure to a hazardous atmosphere, and PPE is the last line of defense. If you want to protect your lungs, the best thing is to substitute the hazardous chemical or material with a non-hazardous equivalent. If this is not possible, the next step should be to control the contaminant so that it cannot reach harmful levels requiring PPE, like ventilation.
For more information about respirators, visit National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health | NIOSH | CDC or Home | Occupational Safety and Health Administration (osha.gov).

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