3.4 Training, program evaluation and records

1 Demonstrate, not attend

Paragraph (k)(1) opens: the employer shall ensure that each employee can demonstrate knowledge of at least the following — and then lists seven items. The verb matters. A signature on an attendance sheet is evidence that training was delivered; it is not evidence that anyone can demonstrate anything.

The seven items, at (k)(1)(i) through (vii):

Item (iv) is the practical core and cannot be taught by slide: inspecting, donning, doffing and seal checking are physical skills. Item (vi) is the one most often skipped, and it is the link back to the medical evaluation — a worker who cannot recognize the symptoms will not report them, and (e)(7)(i) depends on them reporting.

2 Understandable, and before use

Paragraph (k)(2): the training shall be conducted in a manner that is understandable to the employee. On a multilingual crew that means what it says.

Paragraph (k)(3): the employer shall provide the training prior to requiring the employee to use a respirator in the workplace. Combined with (e)(1) — medical evaluation before fit testing or use — that fixes the whole sequence: medical evaluation, fit test, training, then issue.

Paragraph (k)(4) allows credit for recent training elsewhere: an employer who can demonstrate that a new employee has received training within the last 12 months addressing the elements of (k)(1)(i) through (vii) is not required to repeat it, provided that the employee can demonstrate knowledge of those elements. And previous training not repeated initially must be provided no later than 12 months from the date of the previous training. So the credit shortens the first cycle; it does not reset the clock.

3 Retraining: annual, plus three triggers

Paragraph (k)(5): retraining shall be administered annually, and when the following situations occur:

1. 1
   (i) Changes in the workplace or the type of respirator render previous training obsolete.
2. 2
   (ii) Inadequacies in the employee's knowledge or use of the respirator indicate that the employee has not retained the requisite understanding or skill.
3. 3
   (iii) Any other situation arises in which retraining appears necessary to ensure safe respirator use.

This is a real difference from hazard communication, which has no refresher interval at all. Here the annual retraining is explicit, and the three triggers sit on top of it. Trigger (ii) is worth pairing with the program evaluation duty at (l)(2): consulting wearers about how the program is working is exactly how inadequacies get identified.

Paragraph (k)(6) closes the loop with voluntary users: the basic advisory information on respirators presented in Appendix D shall be provided by the employer, in any written or oral format, to employees who wear respirators when such use is not required by the section or by the employer.

4 Program evaluation: asking the people who wear them

Element nine of the program — (c)(1)(ix) — points to paragraph (l), and (l) has two halves.

(l)(1): the employer shall conduct evaluations of the workplace as necessary to ensure that the provisions of the current written program are being effectively implemented and that it continues to be effective. No interval is set; the obligation is continuous.

(l)(2): the employer shall regularly consult employees required to use respirators to assess their views on program effectiveness and to identify any problems — and any problems that are identified during this assessment shall be corrected. Four factors are named as a minimum: respirator fit, including the ability to use the respirator without interfering with effective workplace performance ((l)(2)(i)); appropriate respirator selection for the hazards ((l)(2)(ii)); proper respirator use under the workplace conditions the employee encounters ((l)(2)(iii)); and proper respirator maintenance ((l)(2)(iv)).

Factor (i) is the most useful sentence in the paragraph. It treats “this respirator makes the job impossible” as a program problem the employer must correct, not as a compliance failure by the wearer. If a crew cannot communicate, cannot see, or cannot work at pace in the respirator they were given, the standard says change the selection.

5 What to actually ask

Program evaluation fails when it becomes a form. Five questions, asked to wearers rather than to supervisors, surface almost everything.

1. 1
   Does it seal on you every day, or only on a good day? Marginal fits show up here before they show up in a fit test.
2. 2
   When did you last change your cartridges, and how did you decide? If the answer is “when I could smell it”, the change schedule required by (d)(3)(iii) is not being followed.
3. 3
   Where does it live between shifts? Compare with (h)(2)(i) — protected from damage, contamination, dust, sunlight, extreme temperatures, excessive moisture and damaging chemicals.
4. 4
   Have you taken it off during a task, and why? Heat, communication, glasses, fogging — every answer is a selection finding under (l)(2)(i).
5. 5
   Do you know what would make you leave the area? Tests (g)(2)(ii) knowledge, and it is a question with a right answer.

6 The three record sets

Paragraph (m) requires three, and each has a different retention rule.

(m)(1) Medical evaluation records — retained and made available in accordance with 29 CFR 1910.1020, which is the standard governing access to employee exposure and medical records.

(m)(2) Fit test records — the five items of (m)(2)(i)(A) through (E), retained until the next fit test is administered.

(m)(3) A written copy of the current respirator program, retained by the employer.

And (m)(4): written materials required to be retained under the paragraph shall be made available upon request to affected employees and to the Assistant Secretary or designee for examination and copying. The program is not an internal document; the people wearing the respirators are entitled to read it.