N-100 respirators & Lead RRP work. Part 1: Do I have to wear one?

A question came up during a recent class we did on "Lead Safety for Renovation, Repair, and Painting."  In the Joint EPA-HUD Curriculum there is in Appendix 5 a document called "Steps to Lead Safe Renovation, Repair and Painting which states:

Wear respiratory protection.  When work creates dust or paint chips, workers should wear respiratory protection, such as an N-100 dispose able respirator, to prevent them from breathing leaded dust.

Notice that the word is "should" and not "must" or "shall."  Should - as it is used here - means if the work creates dust or paint chips that exposes the worker to more than a permissible exposure limit (PEL) of 50 μg/m3 in an 8-hour work shift.  So the question for an RRP contractor to ask will be:

"Will the work performed on this project expose my workers to more than 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air?"

And the answer is...  That depends.  Depends on what?  Depends on how active your workers are going to be in an 8-hour work period.  The purpose of the RRP rule was to allow for the indiscriminate removal or minimally invasive working in a lead-based paint environment.  It is not designed for lead removal through abatement. 

"In general, renovations that involve only a small amount of paint disturbance create less dust than jobs that involve larger areas of paint disturbance."

For this reason, the EPA implies - but does not state emphatically - that using their "Safe Work Practices" and avoiding "Prohibited Practices" should create an environment that does not put dust in the air above the PEL and - most importantly - leave that dust in the building where children can come in contact with it.  Michael Scott and we in the Public Health field call this "win-win-win."

"Dust reduction in the work area will make the workplace safer for employees, and will make cleaning easier."

"So do my guys need to wear a respirator?  Just cut to the chase Mr. Wordy!"

Well...that depends.  Are you willing to walk onto the slippery slope of assumption?  Here is what OSHA has to say about respirators:

In the control of those occupational diseases caused by breathing air contaminated with harmful dusts, fogs, fumes, mists, gases, smokes, sprays, or vapors, the primary objective shall be to prevent atmospheric contamination. This shall be accomplished as far as feasible by accepted engineering control measures (for example, enclosure or confinement of the operation, general and local ventilation, and substitution of less toxic materials). When effective engineering controls are not feasible, or while they are being instituted, appropriate respirators shall be used pursuant to this section. 1910.134(a)(1)

What OSHA is saying here is this.  If you use proper controls (i.e. "Safe Work Practices" and avoiding "Prohibited Practices") lead dust contamination should not be at the level of "harmful."  So both the EPA and OSHA are saying the same thing, use a respirator only when workers are to be exposed above the PEL.  The slippery slope of assumption is that you will not know if the PEL is exceeded unless you perform air monitoring, which is time consuming and expensive.

"So do they have to wear respirators?"

Well...that depends.  Are you willing to go out on a pretty well supported and hardy limb and say:

• We follow EPA's RRP safe work practices
• We do not use any prohibited practices
• We believe, that based on those two bullets, and the fact that we will spend limited time on this project and/or disturb minimal dust during our activities, that the air - should it be monitored - would be below the OSHA PEL.
• And we believe that under OSHA's general duty clause we are not exposing our employees to air contaminated with harmful lead dust.

Bottom line - if you are not sure or comfortable making this type of assumption about the air not being harmful, get yourself some competent help.  Sometimes the cost of a CIH can be well worth the peace of mind they can bring by adding one more bullet:

• Our CIH says we don't have to wear a respirator for this particular job.

"OK, but can they wear a respirator just to be on the safe side?"

Well...that depends....

Next Post: Part 2:  The Voluntary Use of Respirators.


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