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What is the NIOSH respirator certification standard all about?
In May of 1995, NIOSH took sole control of approval and certification responsibilities that it had shared with the Mining Safety and Health Administration. At that time, certification regulations under 30 CFR Part 11 were moved to 42 CFR Part 84 and the rules governing the certification of non-powered, air-purifying particulate-filter respirators, the most commonly used respirators, were revised. After July 1998, manufacturers could no longer produce non-powered air-purifying particulate respirators that met the Part 11 criteria.
Whenever your facility makes the transition, you must identify NIOSH-approved respirators that will protect workers from the air contaminants they will be exposed to on the job.
The NIOSH standard groups non-powered, air-purifying particulate-filter respirators according to the following filter series:
These categories each have three levels of filter efficiency (95%, 99%, or 99.97%) depending on how much filter leakage can be accepted. Higher filter efficiency means lower filter leakage.
NIOSH intends to revise certification requirements in modules, or stages, for other respirator classes to incorporate technical advances made in the past 20 or so years.