Asbestos Limits: A Discussion – Respiratory Protection & the OEL
The purpose of this webinar is to look at the role and performance of respiratory protective equipment (RPE) when determining the Occupational Exposure Limit (OEL) in the EU and the Control Limit (CL) in the UK.
How individual national regulators determine and apply the protection factor (PF also referred to as the APR) to the RPE worn by workers disturbing or removing asbestos is crucial to the measurement of the airborne concentration and the application of the OEL and the UK control limits.
The current lack of standardisation in respirator PF’s and how they are applied means that airborne levels of fibres to achieve compliance with the EU asbestos workers directive may vary by 1 to 2 orders of magnitude between EU member states.
In short the measured airborne concentrations to meet the new EU OEL is more a decision on what the “A” in the APR stands for – Is it Assigned, Approved, Actual or Agreed?
What does the current UK guidance say, and do you think we need to change? A Discussion with two short presentations by Nicholas Baxter (HSE) and Garry Burdett (BOHS-FAAM).
Agenda
Sara Mason - Introduction
Garry Burdett - Detailing UK and EU current positions/ guidance and issues with EU proposals
Q&A #1
Nick Baxter: Performance of Respirators, what we know and what we can expect. (10-12 minutes)
Q&A #2
Sara Mason - Conclusion
Speaker Biographies
Nick Baxter
Nick is the Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) Technical Lead in the HSE Science Division. Nick has been working in the area of RPE since 2006; leading incident investigations and HSE/external research, and representing HSE at RPE stakeholder working groups and committees. Nick was heavily involved in HSE’s response during the COVID-19 pandemic in the HSE Personal protective equipment (PPE) Tech Team; providing guidance to government departments on RPE selection and fit testing, giving training to the government procurement teams, answering questions from manufacturers and test houses, and assessing documentation for approval of non CE-marked PPE to enter the NHS supply chain. Nick is Chair of the UK standards committee for RPE and has contributed to the development of new International performance standards for RPE and fit testing. Nick is currently contributing to the revision of European RPE standards, specifically EN 149 for filtering facepieces. Nick is the current Vice-President of the International Society for Respiratory Protection (ISRP).