NIOSH posted a blog stating that when respirators are selected, maintained and used in the context of an OSHA-compliant respiratory protection program, in which personal protective technology is part of the hierarchy of controls to protect the worker, users can expect that their respirator is working and reducing the amount of hazards that they could potentially breathe. However, as new hazards emerge, the applicability of the science that NIOSH uses to base respirator test methods, performance requirements, and use recommendations needs to be continually reaffirmed, updated and improved to assure the expected level of protection is provided -- and one such emerging hazard is engineered nanoparticles, NIOSH said.
