Every November, OSHA reports on the most commonly cited standards and like in years past, the respiratory protection standard is on the top 10 list. The most common issues cited include providing medical evaluations, a written respirator program, and voluntary use of respirators.

If you are allowing the voluntary use of filtering facepiece respirators (dust masks), you must first be sure they are not "required". This can be accomplished by hazard evaluation and possibly exposure monitoring.

If you have determined that respiratory protection is not required for these individuals and filtering face-piece respirators are being used voluntarily, make sure to:

• Verify that the respirator itself does not create a hazard, for example:
  • Ensure that masks are not used if dirty or contaminated.
  • Ensure their use does not interfere with the employee's ability to work safely.
• Provide users with appendix D of the standard.

Resources

OSHA has a good video overview of the voluntary use of respirators.

OSHA respiratory protection topic page.