In the video below, Ben Laverty III talks about Respirators, their training, storage and care, fines for respirator and for pesticides, as well as Filters and how 2019 rules have changed the way you should use respirators. Below the video is a full transcript for your reading needs.

Transcript:

Questions have come up about respirators and I think the most important one is that, in many industries people will use what's called a dust mask and that is technically an air particulate matter respirator. And it must have two straps. It will have NIOSH printed on it, NIOSH standing for the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. And if the label requires a respirator, it can be a N95 P95 P100 and N100 and you must use that. And you must have respirator training as to the limitations and the uses of that respirator. That respirator can only be used for one day and now the definition is if you are out there for five minutes, you use the respirator, you come out, it's one day, you throw it away. And if you have a negative pressure, half face or full-faced respirator, then you must change the cartridges out after one day, whether it be five minutes or at ten or twelve hour day, doesn't matter. And those are some of the nuances that people don't get all the details.

Respirator Training

Respirator training, the way we do it, is in conjunction with the specific pesticide label training, so that the employee is able to say oh this pesticide, requires this respirator, I'll know to go get that. And they leave with an employee training record and we also give one to the employer, we keep a record of it here, digitally now on the iCloud, so that we can access that whenever we need it.

Respirator Storage and Care

Respirators must be kept in a hermetically sealed container. They must be kept clean. They can't be transferred from one person to another without sanitization. Those are some of the hit and misses that we see out there and people will get in trouble for doing that.

Respirator Fines

Fines will vary by regulation. Title 3 is the AG code. Title 3 is a little less expensive than CAL/OSHA but under the new California Department of pesticide regulation. If you have three people out there, that did should have had respirators, but don't, it could be up to seven thousand ($7000) a piece. twenty one thousand ($21,000). Whereas with Cal OSHA the Cal OSHA says, whoa one person was out there and it was a very serious violation, it could be twenty five thousand ($25,000) for one person and if it's repeat willful like I said before it could be a hundred and thirty thousand ($130,000) for each of those violations.

Pesticide Fines

Pesticide fines can be as low as $500 even some $250 but anymore, again the California Department of pesticide regulation is trying to get people's attention by higher fines, they get everybody to go to higher safety and a higher level of safety.

Respirator Filters and Cartridges

I've been asked about respirators and the filters on the respirators. Filters on the respirators, depend upon what chemical is being used. And without getting into the exact details, there are pesticide filters, usually by color, that will be for organic vapors, acid gases, chlorine gases or others. And those our assignments are made through either the NIOSH guidebook or through the pesticide label. But, there is not a one-size or one kind of filter fits all when it comes to the respirator filter that's used by employees.

Safety and fines over the years

I believe that in my 33 years in the safety profession that started in January, excuse me December 1st 1985. We weren't very good then. And I say look in retrospect, we've come a long way for the safety of our people and I mean a long way. And now they're raising the fine so I guess they're gonna put us over the edge and be perfect. I'm not sure that that's possible, but we got to go for it because that's those are the regs.