Washington Administrative Code (Last Updated: November 23, 2016) |
Title 296. Labor and Industries, Department of |
Chapter 296-307. Safety standards for agriculture. |
Section 296-307-59805. Make sure voluntary use of respirators is safe.
Latest version.
- Definition:Voluntary use is respirator use that is requested by the employee AND permitted by the employer when NO respiratory hazard exists.IMPORTANT: If you choose to require respirator use, use is NOT voluntary and the required use sections of this part apply.You must:(1) Make sure voluntary respirator use does NOT:• Interfere with an employee's ability to work safely, such as restricting necessary vision or radio communicationOR• Create health hazards.Note:Examples of health hazards include:• Skin irritation, dermatitis, or other health effects caused by using a dirty respirator• Illness created by sharing contaminated respirators• Health effects caused by use of an unsafe air supply, such as carbon monoxide poisoning.You must:(2) Provide all voluntary respirator users with the advisory information in Table 2 at no cost to them.Note:If you have provided employees with the advisory information required in the previous section, WAC 296-307-598, you do not need to provide the additional information in Table 2 to those employees.You must:(3) Develop and maintain a written program that includes the following:• Medical evaluation provisions as specified in WAC 296-307-604.• Procedures to properly clean and disinfect respirators, according to WAC 296-307-62015, if they are reused.• How to properly store respirators, according to WAC 296-307-61010, so that using them does not create hazards.• Procedures to make sure there is a safe air supply, according to WAC 296-307-616, when using air-line respirators and SCBAs.• Training according to WAC 296-307-608 when necessary to ensure respirator use does NOT create a hazard.Note:• Pay for medical evaluations, training, travel related costs, and wages. You do NOT need to pay for respirators employees use only voluntarily.• If you have both voluntary and required respirator users, you may choose to treat voluntary users as required users. Doing this exceeds the requirements in this section.Exemption:If employees use only filtering-facepiece respirators and do so only voluntarily, you do not need to develop and maintain a written program.Use Table 2 to provide information to employees who voluntarily use any type of respirator.Table 2
Rules
296-307-598,296-307-604,296-307-62015,296-307-61010,296-307-616,296-307-608,