When you must wear a respirator to protect yourself against airborne contaminants in your workplace, it is very important to follow proper procedures for putting it on and taking it off.

If there is anything common among the 1.1 million firefighters—both career and volunteer—serving in the United States, it’s that at any moment, they may be required to put their lives on the line to protect people and property from disaster. But who helps protect these dedicated public servants from the on-the-job dangers they face? One group making the effort is the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF), whose “Everyone Goes Home” program champions a set of 16 life safety initiatives designed to reduce the number of preventable firefighter line-of-duty injuries and fatalities.

Worker safety can be compromised by using replacement component parts or accessories that are not NIOSH-approved for the specific respirator. Although NIOSH-approved respirators are comprised of various component parts, they are approved as a complete unit. The use of components which are not part of the approved assembly results in a respirator that has not been evaluated and certified by NIOSH.