NIOSH Initiation of Respirator Certification of Respirators with Protections for Wildland Fire-Fighting Operations

Letter to All Respirator Manufacturers

Issue Date: July 10, 2012

From: Heinz Ahlers, Chief, Technology Evaluation Branch, National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory

Subject: NIOSH Initiation of Respirator Certification of Respirators with Protections for Wildland Fire-Fighting Operations

This letter announces that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) will begin issuing certificates of approval to respirators for use during wildland fire-fighting operations. This new protection will be conducted in accordance with a Memorandum of Understanding between the NIOSH National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL) and the Safety Equipment Institute (SEI), a non-governmental non-profit organization that administers third-party certification programs to certify a broad range of safety and protective products. Under this MOU, NIOSH/NPPTL and SEI will cooperatively coordinate certification programs to evaluate candidate respirators for compliance to NFPA 1984-2011, Standard on Respirators for Wildland Fire-Fighting Operations, which includes Tentative Interim Amendment (TIA) No. 11-1.

NIOSH will begin receiving applications for wildland fire-fighting respirator approvals on July 16, 2012. Evaluations of product(s) to NFPA 1984-2011 will be jointly conducted by both NIOSH and SEI. NIOSH will conduct performance evaluations to Sections 7.1.8, 7.2, and 7.3 of the NFPA 1984-2011 standard as part of the requirements for approval for use during wildland fire-fighting operations. Concurrently, SEI will conduct the performance evaluations to Chapters 5 and 6 as well as Sections 7.1.1 through 7.1.7. NIOSH will issue approval for a collective protection specific to use during wildland fire-fighting operations under 42 CFR Part 84 only to any air-purifying respirator or powered air-purifying respirator configuration submitted specifically to meet the requirements in the NFPA 1984-2011 standard. Upon successful completion of all requirements for approval by NIOSH and SEI, a certification letter will be issued by both organizations.

All certification application(s) shall 1) be submitted concurrently to NIOSH (Records Room) and SEI and 2) include a completed application package for each wildland respirator model for which approval is requested. NIOSH submittals should be submitted following the requirements outlined in the Standard Application Procedures (SAP). The NIOSH fees for conducting tests are $4100.00. Consultations with NIOSH are available and encouraged prior to submitting an application to enable an accurate determination of required test hardware to be made.

Your assistance in following these procedures will assist NIOSH and SEI in ensuring an orderly certification process.

We hope this information is helpful to you. Please feel free to contact Jeffrey Peterson at 412-386-4014 or by email at JAP3@CDC.GOV if you have any questions or if we can be of other assistance to you.

NIOSH Initiation of Respirator Certification of Respirators with Protections for Wildland Fire-Fighting Operations [PDF - 141 KB]