Small Entity Compliance Guide for the Respiratory Protection Standard

This Small Entity Compliance Guide (SECG), OSHA 3384-09 ? Small Entity Compliance Guide for the Respiratory Protection Standard, is intended to help small businesses comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration?s (OSHA) Respiratory Protection standard (63 FR 1152; January 8, 1998). While the guide is for small entities, the guide itself is not small. OSHA?s goal for this document is to provide small entities with a comprehensive step-by-step guide complete with checklists and commonly asked questions that will aid both employees and employers in small businesses with a better understanding of OSHA?s respiratory protection standard. The reader should be advised that OSHA also has other shorter documents and visual aids that may be used to better understand respiratory protection and the OSHA standard itself. IF the employees of a small business are only exposed to nuisance dusts and relatively non-toxic chemicals and use only a few types of relatively simple respirators, knowledge of the guide and materials supplied by the respirator manufacturer may be sufficient for the small business owner or an employee to become qualified as a program administrator. IF more dangerous chemical or high exposures are present, or sophisticated respirators are used, the program administrator must have more knowledge or experience. In these circumstances, it may be necessary for the administrator to seek out the expertise needed or to obtain appropriate training. You should read this guide if it is likely that you will need to establish and implement a respiratory protection program for your business. This guide is intended to assist program administrators, employers who need to develop a program, employees who may be required to wear respirators, and licensed medical professional who must evaluate an employee?s ability to war respirators, among others.