Annual training required by 29 CFR 1910.134(k). Covers the hierarchy of controls, the written program, medical evaluation, respirator types and assigned protection factors, IDLH atmospheres, fit testing, user seal checks, cartridge change schedules, and maintenance. Medical evaluation and fit testing must be arranged by your employer and cannot be completed online.
29 CFR 1910.134 is consistently among OSHA's five most frequently cited standards, and the citations cluster in predictable places: no written program, no medical evaluation, no fit test, and no annual training. Each of those is a separate violation, and an employer can be cited for all four at once.
Respirators are unlike most personal protective equipment. Gloves that fail badly are obvious. A respirator that fails gives no warning at all - the wearer breathes contaminated air, feels nothing unusual, and learns years later what it cost. That is why the standard is prescriptive rather than advisory.
1910.134(k) requires that employees be trained before using a respirator, on seven specific subjects, in a manner they can understand. 1910.134(k)(5) requires that retraining be administered annually, and additionally whenever workplace conditions change, when a different type of respirator is introduced, or when an employee's knowledge or use suggests the training has not been retained.
A limit worth stating at the outset. Two requirements of this standard cannot be met by any online course, including this one. You must be medically evaluated before you may wear a respirator, and you must be fit tested on the specific make, model and size you will use. Both are arranged by your employer. This course covers the knowledge the standard requires; it does not replace those two steps, and no course can.
The most important principle in this subject is that a respirator is the last line of defence, not the first. 1910.134(a)(1) is unambiguous: the employer's primary obligation is to prevent atmospheric contamination through engineering control measures - such as enclosure or confinement of the operation, general and local ventilation, and substitution of less toxic materials. Respirators are used only when effective engineering controls are not feasible, or while they are being installed.
The hierarchy, in order of effectiveness:
The hierarchy is ordered by reliability, not convenience. Engineering controls fail visibly and can be maintained. PPE fails silently and depends on the correct model being selected, correctly sized, correctly worn, and correctly maintained, every single time, by every single person.
If you are being issued a respirator for a task that could be ventilated or enclosed instead, that is a legitimate question to raise. The standard expects it to be asked.
Where respirators are required, 1910.134(c) obliges the employer to establish and implement a written program with worksite-specific procedures, administered by a suitably trained program administrator. A program that exists only as a habit is a citation.
The written program must include:
Respirators must be provided at no cost to the employee, along with medical evaluations and training. An employer who asks a worker to buy their own respirator is in violation.
Voluntary use is treated separately. Where an employee chooses to wear a filtering facepiece such as an N95 that is not required, the employer must still provide the information in Appendix D of the standard. Where voluntary use involves any other respirator type, medical evaluation and elements of the written program still apply.
Wearing a respirator is physiological work. It adds breathing resistance, increases heat load, restricts vision and communication, and can provoke claustrophobia. For a worker with an underlying cardiac or pulmonary condition, that burden can be dangerous in itself.
1910.134(e) therefore requires the employer to provide a medical evaluation to determine an employee's ability to use a respirator before fit testing and before any use in the workplace. The evaluation is performed by a physician or other licensed health care professional, and the employer must obtain a written recommendation stating whether the employee is medically able to use the respirator, whether any limitations apply, and whether a follow-up is needed.
The standard permits a medical questionnaire - Appendix C - as the initial screen, or an equivalent initial medical examination. The questionnaire must be administered confidentially, during normal working hours or at a time and place convenient to the employee, and in a manner the employee can understand. The employer is not entitled to see the employee's answers, only the professional's written recommendation.
Additional evaluation is required if the employee reports medical signs or symptoms related to respirator use, if the health care professional or program administrator recommends it, if information from the program indicates a need, or if workplace conditions change in a way that increases the physiological burden.
This step cannot be completed online. No course, this one included, can medically clear you to wear a respirator.
Respirators divide into two families. Air-purifying respirators, or APRs, filter contaminants out of the surrounding air. Atmosphere-supplying respirators deliver clean air from elsewhere. An APR does not create oxygen and must never be used in an oxygen-deficient atmosphere.
Filtering facepiece respirators - the disposable type, commonly N95 - filter particulates only. NIOSH classifies particulate filters by oil resistance and efficiency: N (not resistant to oil), R (somewhat resistant), P (oil-proof), each rated 95, 99 or 100 for filtration efficiency. An N95 is not effective against gases or vapours at all.
Elastomeric half-mask respirators cover the nose and mouth and accept replaceable cartridges or filters. Full facepiece respirators additionally cover the eyes, provide eye protection, and achieve a substantially better face seal - which is why their assigned protection factor is far higher.
Powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs) use a battery-powered blower to draw air through filters and deliver it to the facepiece or hood. Because the blower maintains positive pressure inside, PAPRs reduce breathing resistance and, in loose-fitting hood versions, can be used by workers with facial hair who cannot achieve a seal.
Cartridge selection must match the hazard. Cartridges are colour-coded by contaminant class, but colour alone is not selection - the employer must identify the contaminant, estimate the concentration, and select accordingly. Using the wrong cartridge offers no protection while feeling entirely normal.
Where the air cannot be filtered into something breathable, it must be supplied. Supplied-air respirators (SARs), also called airline respirators, deliver breathing air through a hose from a compressor or cylinder. Self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) carries its own air supply on the wearer's back.
Breathing air supplied to these systems must meet at least Grade D requirements: 19.5 to 23.5 percent oxygen, hydrocarbon content of 5 milligrams per cubic metre or less, carbon monoxide of 10 ppm or less, carbon dioxide of 1,000 ppm or less, and no noticeable odour. Compressor intakes must be sited away from vehicle exhaust and other contaminant sources, and carbon monoxide alarms are required on oil-lubricated compressors.
IDLH means Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health - an atmosphere posing an immediate threat to life, or likely to cause irreversible adverse health effects, or likely to impair an individual's ability to escape. Oxygen deficiency below 19.5 percent is treated as IDLH.
For IDLH atmospheres, 1910.134(g)(3) permits only a full facepiece pressure demand SCBA with a minimum service life of thirty minutes, or a combination full facepiece pressure demand SAR with an auxiliary self-contained escape supply. It also requires at least one employee stationed outside the IDLH atmosphere, in visual, voice or signal line communication, equipped for rescue, with the employer notified before rescue is attempted.
An air-purifying respirator is never acceptable in an IDLH or oxygen-deficient atmosphere.
An assigned protection factor, or APF, is the workplace level of respiratory protection a properly functioning respirator is expected to provide to properly fitted and trained users. An APF of 10 means the air inside the facepiece is expected to be ten times cleaner than the air outside.
OSHA's APF table at 1910.134(d)(3)(i)(A) includes:
The APF is used with the maximum use concentration, or MUC - the APF multiplied by the exposure limit for the contaminant. If a substance has a permissible exposure limit of 5 parts per million and you are wearing a half mask with an APF of 10, the maximum concentration in which that respirator may be used is 50 ppm. Above that, a higher class of respirator is required.
The MUC must never exceed the IDLH level for the substance, and employers must not apply an MUC above the concentration at which the cartridge or canister can reliably perform.
APFs assume a respirator that fits, is worn continuously, and is maintained. A half mask worn with a beard does not deliver a factor of 10 - it delivers whatever leaks past the seal, which may be nothing at all.
A tight-fitting respirator works by sealing against skin. If the seal leaks, contaminated air takes the path of least resistance and bypasses the filter entirely. 1910.134(f) therefore requires fit testing for every employee using a tight-fitting facepiece.
Fit testing is required before initial use, whenever a different respirator facepiece - size, style, model or make - is used, and at least annually thereafter. It must be repeated when the employee, the employer, the program administrator or the health care professional observes changes in physical condition that could affect fit, such as significant weight change, facial scarring, or major dental work.
Two methods are permitted. Qualitative fit testing (QLFT) is pass or fail, relying on the wearer's response to a test agent such as saccharin, Bitrex, isoamyl acetate or irritant smoke. It may only be used for respirators with an APF of 10 or less. Quantitative fit testing (QNFT) instrumentally measures leakage and produces a numerical fit factor, and is required for respirators needing an APF above 10.
The fit test must be performed on the exact make, model, style and size the employee will wear. Passing a fit test on one manufacturer's half mask says nothing about another's.
Like medical evaluation, fit testing cannot be done online. It requires the physical respirator, a test protocol and a trained administrator. Your employer must arrange it.
A fit test performed annually says nothing about whether the respirator seals today. That is what the user seal check is for, and 1910.134(g)(1)(iii) requires one every time a tight-fitting respirator is put on.
Positive pressure check: close off the exhalation valve and exhale gently. The facepiece should bulge slightly and hold, with no outward leakage. Negative pressure check: cover the inlet openings, inhale gently, and hold the breath for about ten seconds. The facepiece should collapse slightly and stay collapsed. Any leakage means reposition and repeat.
Facial hair. 1910.134(g)(1)(i) prohibits tight-fitting facepieces where facial hair comes between the sealing surface and the face, or interferes with valve function. This is not a grooming preference - hair in the sealing area creates channels that filtered air will bypass, and no amount of tightening closes them. Research has repeatedly shown that even a day or two of stubble measurably degrades fit. A worker who cannot or will not shave the seal area must be provided with a loose-fitting PAPR or hood instead.
Anything else crossing the seal is prohibited for the same reason: spectacle temple bars on a full facepiece (spectacle kits exist for this), jewellery, headwear, or the straps of other equipment.
Employers must also ensure the respirator continues to fit and function during use, and must allow employees to leave the area to wash, replace a respirator, or address a leak or breakthrough.
Gas and vapour cartridges do not last indefinitely. They adsorb contaminant until they are saturated, at which point contaminated air passes straight through - a phenomenon called breakthrough.
Historically workers were told to change cartridges when they smelled or tasted the contaminant. 1910.134(d)(3)(iii) ended that. Where there is no end-of-service-life indicator (ESLI) certified for the contaminant, the employer must implement a change schedule based on objective information or data that will ensure cartridges are changed before the end of their service life. Relying on warning properties alone is not acceptable, because many substances have poor odour warning, and olfactory fatigue means the nose stops detecting a smell long before the hazard is gone.
Particulate filters are different: they load rather than saturate, and are typically changed when breathing resistance becomes noticeable, when damaged or soiled, or per the manufacturer's guidance.
Maintenance under 1910.134(h) requires respirators to be cleaned and disinfected as often as necessary - after each use for those issued for exclusive use where used in emergencies, and before being worn by a different individual. They must be stored to protect against damage, contamination, dust, sunlight, extreme temperature, excessive moisture and deformation of the facepiece, and not left loose in a toolbox or hung on a nail where the seal distorts.
Respirators must be inspected before each use and during cleaning, checking facepiece, valves, straps, cartridges and connections. Emergency-use respirators must be inspected at least monthly and the inspection certified.
Emergency respirator use is governed more tightly than routine use, because the atmosphere is unknown, the timeline is short, and the person is under stress.
Where SCBA is used in an IDLH atmosphere, standby personnel must be present, equipped and trained for rescue, and communication maintained. In interior structural firefighting, 1910.134(g)(4)(i) requires at least two employees inside and two outside - the "two-in, two-out" rule - with the two outside accounting for those inside and able to initiate rescue. One of the two outside may take another role only if doing so does not jeopardise their rescue responsibility.
Escape-only respirators are designed for a single purpose: getting out. They are not for entry, not for work, and their service life is short - often five to sixty minutes depending on type. They must be selected for the specific escape situation and be immediately available.
Program evaluation under 1910.134(l) requires the employer to conduct evaluations of the workplace as necessary to ensure the written program is being properly implemented, and to consult employees to ensure they are using respirators properly. Employees must be asked about respirator fit, appropriate selection for the hazards, proper use under prevailing conditions, and proper maintenance.
That consultation is your route to raise problems: a mask that will not seal, a cartridge schedule that seems too long, work that ought to be ventilated instead. The standard builds in the expectation that employees are asked, and answered.
1910.134(k) requires the employer to provide effective training to every employee required to use a respirator, so that they can demonstrate knowledge of at least seven subjects:
Training must be provided before the respirator is used, in a manner understandable to the employee, and retraining administered annually under (k)(5) - as well as whenever workplace conditions change, a different respirator type is introduced, or an employee's knowledge or use indicates the training has not been retained.
Recordkeeping under 1910.134(m): medical evaluation records are retained per 1910.1020, fit test records are kept until the next fit test is administered, and a written copy of the current program must be retained. Records must be made available to employees on request.
Your rights. Respirators, medical evaluations, fit testing and training are provided at no cost to you. You may leave the work area to wash your face, replace a respirator, or deal with a seal problem or breakthrough. You may raise safety concerns without retaliation, and retaliation is itself a violation under Section 11(c) of the OSH Act.
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