It is common for companies to employ respiratory protective equipment (RPE) to protect their workers from respiratory risks present in a given work environment or those generated by the workers' own activities.
With industrial advancement and the growing responsibility companies have in promoting safety and preserving the health of their workers, the demand for respiratory protective equipment has become increasingly frequent. Although the use of RPE should be the last measure applied within the occupational risk control hierarchy, the order is often reversed, and respirators become the first and primary control measure used in an attempt to mitigate workers’ exposure to respiratory risks.
Today, a wide variety of brands and models of respiratory protective equipment are available, ranging from simple, low-cost equipment to devices that require a larger investment and incorporate advanced technology.
However, companies need to be aware that regardless of the type of respiratory protective equipment provided to employees, this control measure may not be effective and may not even be valid if not accompanied by other necessary precautions for this type of PPE.
This means that simply providing respirators does not ensure effective protection for individuals exposed to respiratory risks; in other words, companies cannot validate this action, even if they can prove that they regularly provide RPE to their employees.
Therefore, since April 11, 1994, with the publication of the regulatory instruction, providing respirators for voluntary or mandatory use brings with it the responsibility to establish procedures aimed at preserving the protective factor the equipment can provide and ensuring that its use does not harm the user’s health.
This regulatory instruction required employers to adopt a set of practical and administrative measures, to be documented and implemented by the company, encompassing a Respiratory Protection Program (PPR) that adheres to the recommendations of the Jorge Duprat Figueiredo Foundation for Occupational Safety and Health (Fundacentro).
Because this requirement was not mentioned in a Regulatory Standard (NR), many companies and professionals were unaware of these responsibilities. However, on November 11, 2021, Ordinance 672 was published, once again imposing the responsibilities outlined in the previous regulatory instruction on companies that employ respirators, establishing technical regulations on the use of respiratory protective equipment.
Among the administrative procedures are the establishment of a respiratory protection policy within the company, the designation of an administrator, the distribution and definition of responsibilities, beard policy, among others. Practical measures include medical evaluation of candidates, respiratory risk assessment, respirator selection according to regulatory methods, training, fit testing, seal check, usage monitoring, air quality assessment, program audit, etc.
It is increasingly clear that companies will be required to provide evidence of effective management of risk control measures and worker protection.
With the update to NR01, starting in January 2022, organizations must implement occupational risk management (GRO) in each establishment’s activities, forming a Risk Management Program (GRO-PGR). Once again, this directs employers who choose to adopt RPE as a control measure to establish the program, inevitably leading to the mandatory implementation of PPR in line with Fundacentro's guidelines.
Now, more than ever, companies need to be aware of these responsibilities and prepared to implement all the activities and precautions outlined in the latest version of the program, published by FUNDACENTRO in 2016, if they want to validate the use of respirators as an effective control measure for preserving the health of their workers.
