• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.393-403
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• 2014

Objectives: Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency(KOSHA) intended to provide guidance to respirator program administrators on respirator selection. The purpose of this project is to suggest a preliminary respirator selection guide(PRSG) for the final guidance certified by KOSHA for the correct selection of respirators in the workplace. Materials: This PRSG was made on the based of current status of respirator usage including respirators available in Korea, foreign documents search and so on. PRSG was partially modified NIOSH pocket guide to chemical hazards, 3M Respirator Protection Resource Guide(RPRG) and OSHA Assigned Protection Factor(APF) rulemaking. Results: Respirators for chemicals having Korean Occupational Exposure Limits(KOELs) can be recommended in PRSG. For the others chemicals that have no KOELs, PRSG tells you what respirators you can select, using a simple step-by-step approach after health hazard assessment like HSE procedure. Conclusions: PRSG helps you to decide the right level of protection for a given hazardous substance and how to select the right respirators. PRSG is thus expected to reduce significant misuses of respirators for the work environment.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.424-431
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• 2021

Background: This study aims to introduce the formulation of the regulation for the selection of respirators for accident preparedness chemicals (APCs) according to chemical workplace situations and to determine on-site applicability. Methods: Workplaces were grouped into seven work categories, and APCs were classified into six groups to select adequate respirators. A survey was conducted to enhance the understanding of work situations and adequate respirators. The total number of subjects surveyed in 2018 was 201 managers and handlers, and that in 2019 was 91 handlers and 204 managers. Results: Adequate respirators were allocated to each cell using the matrix method. The study observed an overall lack of understanding of work situations, especially in the operation of open devices, which was the highest at 32.7%. Despite its implementation in 2015, 17.6% and 25.0% of the managers and APCs handlers, respectively, were unaware of the regulations for selecting respirators. Only 70.4% of the APCs handler wore respirators in compliance with regulations. Conclusion: The method for selecting respirators according to work situations using the matrix method is considered reasonable. Thus, this study suggests that the development of educational contents and reinforcing education should be essential steps to increasing awareness of regulations.