OSHA Respiratory Protection Regulation
29 CFR 1910.133
The new OSHA Respiratory Protection Standard 29 CFR 1910.134 has impacted the industry in many direct and indirect ways. We at ENTECH have designed a program which combines OSHA required medical evaluation with OSHA mandated fit testing, in a cost effective, efficient format. The program is designed to have as little monetary impact to the customer as is feasible while still providing a quality service.
The OSHA Medical Questionnaire can either be administered on site, or to save time, can
be sent out to the employee for ret-um by mail. Once it arrives in the ENTECH Office, it
is reviewed by our Medical Services Manger who is a certified Nationally Registered
Paramedic with substantial remote and industrial medical training, as well as, a thorough
working knowledge of OSHA standards. Al1 employees who qualify initially are then
generated a qualification letter by our in-house Corporate Medical Director.
For those employees who do not qualify initially, we have designed a follow-up questionnaire to further evaluate the conditions that were “flagged” on the OSHA
questionnaire. This follow-up details the condition, the circumstances pertaining to the
condition, and the current status of the condition. This information is then forwarded to
the Corporate Medical Director for final qualification determination. At this time,
approximately 86% of the personnel questioned have qualified on the initial questionnaire and the other 14% have qualified after the follow-up.
Our goal is to minimize the need to send an employee to a physician for routine evaluation after the initial questionnaire. If an employee does require physician leve1
medical evaluation for qualification, the questionnaire, the follow-up questionnaire, and
the Corporate Medical Director’s evaluation are sent to the employee for review by his
physician or company physician. This allows physicians who are not familiar with the
OSHA standard to understand specifically what areas need to be evaluated instead of
having to do a “blanket” screening, thereby saving an additional cost burden.
ENTECH maintains all questionnaires and copies of qualification letters as per OSHA
(29 CFR 19 10.1020) and medical practice standards and regulations for a period of
employment plus thirty (30) years. These items are maintained in a confidential nature,
under lock, for this entire time period. Access is only by the Corporate Medical Director,
the Medical Services Manager, and the employee (if written request has been received).
This program has shown to be an effective, efficient way to administer the OSHA
questionnaire to customers. By having our Physician Medical Director review the questionnaires and make the final qualification determination, the liability to
the customer and to ENTECH is greatly reduced.
ENTECH couples this medical evaluation process with fit testing by its affiliate
company, Secorp Industries. Fit testing is accomplished using the PortaCount
quantitative testing device. This device gives a quantitative measure of the effectiveness
of the respirator device while generating a hard copy of the actual numeric results for
filing. Copies of these fit test results are also maintained as a service to the customer.
Al1 fit testing and medical evaluations are tracked using our Resource Director software
which tracks personnel who have undergone evaluation and testing. Resource Director
then alerts ENTECH and the customer of upcoming due dates for annual evaluation and
testing. The customer may set this notification at 30, 45, 90 or whatever time span is
required.
ENTECH’s Respiratory Protection compliance program is suitable for any size company in single or multiple locations. Specific evaluation and testing programs can be set up based on your needs, number of employees, and number of locations.