Program Administrator
A qualified Program Administrator must be
designated for each work site where
respirators are used to ensure program
maintenance and to evaluate program
effectiveness.
The Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) requires the program
administrator to have an adequate level of
training or experience to deal with the
complexity of the respiratory protection
program at the work site, to be able to
manage the program as required under the
standard. OSHA does not require
program administrators to attend a
specified course.
1. Qualification
The Program
Administrator is any individual
with appropriate
training and/or experience in
accordance with the site-specific
respiratory protection program and based
on the respiratory hazards that exist,
or that are reasonably anticipated in
his or her department.
The training or
experience needed is appropriate
if it enables the program administrator
to fulfill the minimum RPP standard
requirements including; recognizing,
evaluating, and controlling the hazards
at the job site, as well as familiarity
with the written Site-Specific
Respiratory
Protection Plan.
For example, If
employees are exposed to nuisance dusts
and relatively low-toxicity materials,
and they only use simple respirators.
Then a good knowledge of this plan,
adequate plan-related training, and the
information supplied by the manufacturer
are sufficient for an employee to serve
as the program administrator.
If more dangerous
chemicals are present, or if the
potential for high exposure exists, and
if more sophisticated respirators are
used, the program administrator
must have more extensive experience
and/or training. Then, under these
circumstances, expert assistance needed
and appropriate training will be
provided by DEHS.
2. Responsibilities
The Program
Administrator is responsible for
administering the respiratory protection
program.
Duties of the program administrator
include:
- Identifying work areas, processes or
tasks that require workers to wear
respirators, and evaluating hazards.
- Selection of respiratory protection
options.
- Monitoring respirator use to ensure
that respirators are used in
accordance with their certifications.
- Arranging for and/or conducting
training.
- Ensuring proper storage and
maintenance of respiratory protection
equipment.
- Conducting qualitative fit testing
with Bitrex.
- Facilitating the medical
surveillance program.
- Maintaining records required by the
program.
- Evaluating the program.
- Updating the site-specific written
program as needed.
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