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RESPIRATORY PROTECTION Occasionally our work may necessitate the use of respirators to protect against air contaminants. Due to the limitations of respirators and their uncomfortable nature, the company will make every effort to provide other means of protection, such as local exhaust ventilation,or substitution of less hazardous material, prior to requiring employees to wear them. When it is clearly impractical to remove harmful dusts, fumes, mists, vapors, or gases at their source, or where emergency protection against occasional and/or relatively brief exposure is needed, the company will provide, and the employee exposed to such hazard shall use, approved respiratory equipment. Whenever respirators are required to be used to control harmful exposures, only respiratory equipment approved for that purpose shall be used and such equipment shall be approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).Only parts approved for the specific respirator system shall be used for replacement. General Respiratory Protection Guidelines: 1. Atmospheric contamination will be prevented wherever feasible through engineering controls such as enclosure or confinement of the operation, general and local exhaust ventilation, or substitution of less toxic materials. When effective engineering controls are not feasible, or while they are being instituted,appropriate respirators shall be used. 2. The company shall identify and evaluate the respiratory hazard(s) in the workplace; this evaluation shall include a reasonable estimate of employee exposures to respiratory hazard(s) and an identification of the contaminant's chemical state and physical form. Where we cannot identify or reasonably estimate the employee exposure, the atmosphere shall be considered to be immediately dangerous to life or health (IDLH). 3. Respirators shall be provided when such equipment is necessary to protect the health of the employee. 4. Only NIOSH-certified respirators shall be used. The respirator shall be used in compliance with the conditions of its certification. 5. The company will provide respirators that are applicable and suitable for the purpose intended. We shall select and provide an appropriate respirator based on the respiratory hazard(s)to which the worker is exposed and workplace and user factors that affect respirator performance and reliability. 6. Respirators shall be selected from a sufficient number of respirator models and sizes so that the respirator is acceptable to,and correctly fits,the user. 7. The safety program administrator is qualified by appropriate training or experience that is commensurate with the complexity of the program to administer or oversee the respiratory protection program and conduct the required evaluations of program effectiveness. 8. The company will provide respirators,training,and medical evaluations at no cost to the employee. 9. The company will provide a medical evaluation to determine the employee's ability to use a respirator, before the employee is fit tested or required to use the respirator in the workplace. We may discontinue an employee's medical evaluations when the employee is no longer required to use a respirator. 10. The company will ensure that employees using a tight-fitting facepiece respirator pass an appropriate qualitative fit test (QLFT) or quantitative fit test(QNFT). 65