The Personal Protective Technology Program at NIOSH Reviews of Research Programs of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (2008) / Chapter Skim
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and the National Research Council (NRC) convened a committee of experts to review the NIOSH Personal Protective Technology Program (PPT Program)
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The committee also recommends that the PPT Program establish research centers of excellence, enhance the respirator certification process, increase research on the use and usability of PPT, and assess PPT use and effectiveness in the workplace using a life-cycle approach. OVERVIEW M aintaining the health and safety of workers in the United States and g lobally is accomplished in part by reducing hazardous exposures through the use of personal protective equipment.
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In July 2007 the Institute of Medicine and the Division on Earth and Life Studies of the National Research Council formed the Committee to Review the NIOSH Personal Protective Technology Program. The committee included members with expertise in occupational health, emergency response, health care, personal protective equipment manufacturing, employee organizations, respiratory protection, dermal protection, injury protection, and program evaluation.
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Objective 4. Improve reliability and level of protection by developing criteria that influ ence personal protective equipment designs to better fit the range of facial dimensions of respirator users in the U.S.
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The committee took into account the major external factors, particularly the limited budget and the regulatory mandate for respirator certification. Approximately one-third of the PPT Program's budget is designated for federally mandated respirator certification testing.
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NIOSH certification regula tions are in use by other countries as a model or basis for their respirator certifica tion efforts. The PPT Program conducts a limited number of product audits and conducts manufacturer site audits using both staff and external consultants.
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This will require particular emphasis on increasing safety by improving the comfort, wearability, and individual and organizational incentives needed to ensure that workers do in fact wear PPT. On the basis of its review of the PPT Program's work in research, certification, and policy and standards setting, the committee has assigned the NIOSH Personal Protective Technology Program a score of 4 for relevance (Box S-2)
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Impacts on reducing hazardous exposures or preventing illness or injury are difficult to attribute directly to the work of a single federal agency. However, be cause the PPT Program certifies that respirators meet a number of rigorous, pre specified performance criteria, the committee felt justified in acknowledging that positive end outcomes have occurred that are attributable to the PPT Program's role in respirator certification.
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Similarly, there is much that should be done to improve protective clothing, eyewear, gloves, and other types of PPT, contingent upon additional resources. On the basis of its review of the PPT Program's work in research, respirator certification, and policy and standards setting, the committee has assigned the NIOSH Personal Protective Technology Program a score of 4 for impact.
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The PPT Program sets its research and other institutional priorities through an ongoing strategic planning process that culminates in an annual planning summit attended by the governance team comprised of key PPT Program managers. Inputs to the planning process include the many public and manufacturers' meetings sponsored by the PPT Program that have recently been expanded to focus on a broader range of PPT efforts including hearing loss and fall prevention.
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BOX S-4 Summary of Report Recommendations Recommendation 1: Implement and Sustain a Comprehensive National Personal Protective Technology Program NIOSH should work to ensure the implementation of the 2001 congressional mandate for a comprehensive state-of-the-art federal program focused on personal protective technology. A comprehensive program would build on the current NIOSH PPT Program and would bring unified responsibility and oversight to all PPT-related activity at NIOSH.
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The National Personal Protective Technology Program should • Oversee, coordinate, and where appropriate, conduct research across all types of occupational PPT and across all relevant occupations and workplaces; • Participate in policy development and standards setting across all types of occupational PPT; • Oversee all PPT certification in order to ensure a minimum uni form standard of protection and wearability. The National Program should collaborate with other relevant government agencies, private sector organizations, and not-for-profit organizations to conduct an assessment of the certification mechanisms needed to ensure the efficacy of all types of PPT; and • Promote the development, standards setting, and certification of effectively integrated PPT components and ensembles in which mul tiple types of PPT (e.g., eye protection, hearing protection, respira tors)
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will necessitate a commitment to a broad scope of work and collaborative efforts. Recommendation 2: Establish PPT Research Centers of Excellence and Increase Extramural PPT Research The PPT Program should establish and sustain extramural PPT centers of excellence and work to increase other extramural research opportunities.
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It is critical that this breadth and depth of expertise is focused on important PPT research questions relevant to improving PPT and to transfer ring PPT research into workplace practice. Successful efforts to address critical issues in many other fields of scientific inquiry have been the result of investing in extramural research centers of excellence.
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The NIOSH respirator certification process is highly respected and provides a major contribution to worker safety. The committee believes that although the enhancements to the certification program recommended above will require additional resources, the dividends that will accrue to workers from improved standards, audits, and information dissemination will make such an investment sustainable and well worth the start-up costs.
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However, similar efforts are needed to assess usability issues for the majority of the workforce employed in other occupations. Recommendation 5: Assess PPT Use and Effectiveness in the Workplace Using a Life-Cycle Approach The PPT Program, in collaboration with relevant NIOSH divisions and other partners, should oversee an ongoing surveillance and field testing program to assess PPT use and effectiveness in the workplace.
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NIOSH's Personal Protective Technology Program has made significant strides in improving PPT available to workers, especially respiratory PPT. It is the committee's hope that the recommendations in this report will provide the necessary impetus for the development of a National Personal Protective Technology Program that conducts, coordinates, and provides national oversight of research, standards setting, and certification for all components of PPT and the interface
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18 The Personal Protective Technology Program at N I OSH between and among those components. The committee concludes, on the basis of all available evidence, that increasing the protection of workers from hazard ous workplace exposures through the development and deployment of improved personal protective technologies is not only a critically important and worthwhile goal for workers in the United States and around the world but, with additional resources and thoughtful reorganization, is by no means out of reach.
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