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Respiratory Protection Program

Written respiratory protection program for a warehouse where respirators are required for specific tasks, covering hazard evaluation and respirator selection by a designated program administrator, the rule that engineering controls come before respirators, medical evaluation before any fit test or use, fit testing before first use and at least annually for every tight-fitting facepiece, the user seal check at every donning and the ban on facial hair at the sealing surface, leaving the area at the first sign of breakthrough or leakage, cleaning, storage, inspection and repair, training before first use with annual retraining, the rules for voluntary use of filtering facepieces, and regular evaluation of the program itself.

Audience
Employees assigned to tasks that require a respirator, the respiratory protection program administrator, supervisors who assign those tasks, the fit test administrator, sanitation and spill response team members, maintenance technicians, and any employee who wears a filtering facepiece voluntarily
Review cycle
annual
Last reviewed
2026-08-29
Revision
1

What is in the procedure

9 sections. Regulatory language is fixed and passes through verbatim. Sections marked customized get rewritten around your facility, your equipment, and your job titles.

  1. 01

    Purpose

    Fixed

    This procedure is the facility's written respiratory protection program under 29 CFR 1910.134. It governs every task here where an employee must wear a respirator to protect their health, and it sets the rules for...

  2. 02

    Scope

    Customized

    This program applies to every employee required to wear a respirator for an assigned task, to every employee who wears a filtering facepiece voluntarily, to the supervisors who assign those tasks, and to the program...

  3. 03

    Responsibilities

    Customized

    The facility designates a program administrator qualified by training or experience commensurate with the complexity of this program to administer and oversee it and to conduct the required evaluations of program...

  4. 04

    Procedure: Hazard Evaluation, Respirator Selection, and Medical Evaluation

    Customized

    1. Start with the hazard, not with the respirator.

  5. 05

    Procedure: Fit Testing, Seal Check, and Wearing the Respirator

    Fixed

    1. Every employee who will wear a tight-fitting facepiece is fit tested before initial use of that respirator, again whenever a different facepiece size, style, model, or make is used, and at least annually after that.

  6. 06

    Procedure: Cleaning, Storage, Inspection, and Repair

    Fixed

    1. Every respirator handed to a user is clean, sanitary, and in good working order.

  7. 07

    Procedure: Training, Annual Retraining, and Voluntary Use

    Customized

    Training is given before an employee is required to use a respirator, in a way the employee understands, and hands-on with the respirator that employee will wear.

  8. 08

    Defects, Breakthrough, and Program Evaluation

    Customized

    Stop, leave the area, and report the same shift for any of these: a respirator that will not pass a user seal check after reseating and adjustment, a cracked, hardened, or distorted facepiece, a torn or stretched head...

  9. 09

    References

    Fixed

    29 CFR 1910.134 Respiratory protection, including paragraph (a) permissible practice, paragraph (c) the written respiratory protection program and voluntary use, paragraph (d) selection of respirators, paragraph (e)...

Regulatory references

Respiratory Protection Program: 29 CFR 1910.134(a)(1)

Every SOP generated from this template cites the paragraphs below, with a plain-language summary of what each one requires. Citations are informational and are not legal advice.

StandardTitleWhat it requires
29 CFR 1910.134(a)(1)Respiratory protection: permissible practice, engineering controls firstIn the control of occupational diseases caused by breathing air contaminated with harmful dusts, fogs, fumes, mists, gases, smokes, sprays, or vapors, the primary objective is to prevent atmospheric contamination, and this must be accomplished as far as feasible by accepted engineering control measures, for example enclosure or confinement of the operation, general and local ventilation, and substitution of less toxic materials. Appropriate respirators are used pursuant to this section when effective engineering controls are not feasible, or while they are being instituted. Applied to this warehouse, ventilation, vacuuming instead of dry sweeping, and product substitution are evaluated before a respirator is issued for a task.
29 CFR 1910.134(c)(1)Respiratory protection: written program with worksite-specific proceduresIn any workplace where respirators are necessary to protect the health of the employee, or whenever respirators are required by the employer, the employer must establish and implement a written respiratory protection program with worksite-specific procedures, and must update it as necessary to reflect changes in workplace conditions that affect respirator use. The program must include, as applicable, procedures for selecting respirators, medical evaluations of employees required to use them, fit testing procedures for tight-fitting respirators, procedures for proper use in routine and reasonably foreseeable emergency situations, procedures and schedules for cleaning, disinfecting, storing, inspecting, repairing, discarding, and otherwise maintaining respirators, procedures for the quality, quantity, and flow of breathing air for atmosphere-supplying respirators, training in the respiratory hazards and in the proper use of respirators, and procedures for regularly evaluating the effectiveness of the program.
29 CFR 1910.134(c)(2)Respiratory protection: voluntary respirator useWhere respirator use is not required, the employer may provide respirators at the request of employees or permit employees to use their own, if the employer determines that such use will not in itself create a hazard, and the employer must then provide those users with the information contained in appendix D of the section. The employer must in addition establish and implement those elements of a written program necessary to ensure that any employee using a respirator voluntarily is medically able to use it, and that the respirator is cleaned, stored, and maintained so that its use does not present a health hazard to the user. The stated exception is that employers are not required to include in a written respiratory protection program those employees whose only use of respirators is the voluntary use of filtering facepieces (dust masks); that exception is written against the written-program elements and does not remove the duty to give voluntary users the appendix D information.
29 CFR 1910.134(c)(3)Respiratory protection: designated program administratorThe employer must designate a program administrator who is qualified by appropriate training or experience commensurate with the complexity of the program to administer or oversee the respiratory protection program and to conduct the required evaluations of program effectiveness.
29 CFR 1910.134(d)(1)Respiratory protection: general requirements for selection of respiratorsThe employer must select and provide an appropriate respirator based on the respiratory hazards to which the worker is exposed and on workplace and user factors that affect respirator performance and reliability, and must select a NIOSH-certified respirator that is used in compliance with the conditions of its certification. The employer must identify and evaluate the respiratory hazards in the workplace, and that evaluation must include a reasonable estimate of employee exposures and identification of the contaminant's chemical state and physical form; where the employer cannot identify or reasonably estimate employee exposure, the atmosphere must be considered immediately dangerous to life or health. Respirators must be selected from a sufficient number of models and sizes so that the respirator is acceptable to, and correctly fits, the user.
29 CFR 1910.134(e)(1)Respiratory protection: medical evaluation before fit testing or useThe employer must provide a medical evaluation to determine the employee's ability to use a respirator before the employee is fit tested or required to use the respirator in the workplace. The employer may discontinue an employee's medical evaluations when the employee is no longer required to use a respirator.
29 CFR 1910.134(f)(2)Respiratory protection: fit testing before initial use and at least annuallyThe employer must ensure that an employee using a tight-fitting facepiece respirator is fit tested prior to initial use of the respirator, whenever a different respirator facepiece is used (a different size, style, model, or make), and at least annually thereafter.
29 CFR 1910.134(g)(1)Respiratory protection: facepiece seal protection and the user seal checkThe employer must not permit respirators with tight-fitting facepieces to be worn by employees who have facial hair that comes between the sealing surface of the facepiece and the face or that interferes with valve function, or any condition that interferes with the face-to-facepiece seal or valve function. Where an employee wears corrective glasses, goggles, or other personal protective equipment, the employer must ensure that it is worn in a manner that does not interfere with the seal of the facepiece to the face. For all tight-fitting respirators, the employer must ensure that employees perform a user seal check each time they put the respirator on, using the procedures in appendix B-1 of the section or manufacturer-recommended procedures that the employer demonstrates are as effective.
29 CFR 1910.134(k)(5)Respiratory protection: annual retrainingRetraining must be administered annually, and also when changes in the workplace or the type of respirator render previous training obsolete, when inadequacies in the employee's knowledge or use of the respirator indicate that the employee has not retained the requisite understanding or skill, or when any other situation arises in which retraining appears necessary to ensure safe respirator use. Applied here, a respirator training record older than 12 months makes that employee due for retraining, and they are not assigned respirator work until it is completed.

Compliance checklist

What an inspector looks for

  • A written respiratory protection program with worksite-specific procedures covers every task where a respirator is necessary or required, and it is updated as workplace conditions change

    29 CFR 1910.134(c)(1)

  • A program administrator is designated who is qualified by training or experience commensurate with the complexity of the program, and who administers or oversees it and conducts the evaluations of program effectiveness

    29 CFR 1910.134(c)(3)

  • Respiratory hazards are identified and evaluated with a reasonable estimate of exposure and the contaminant's chemical state and physical form, respirators are NIOSH-certified and used within their certification, and enough models and sizes are stocked to fit each user

    29 CFR 1910.134(d)(1)

  • Every respirator user has a medical evaluation completed before they are fit tested and before they are required to use a respirator in the workplace

    29 CFR 1910.134(e)(1)

  • Each tight-fitting facepiece user is fit tested before initial use, again on any change of facepiece size, style, model, or make, and at least annually

    29 CFR 1910.134(f)(2)

  • No tight-fitting respirator is worn over facial hair at the sealing surface or with any other condition that breaks the seal or valve function, eyewear is worn so it does not interfere with the seal, and a user seal check is performed each time the respirator is put on

    29 CFR 1910.134(g)(1)

  • Employees leave the respirator use area to wash, to change a filter or cartridge, or on detecting vapor or gas breakthrough, a change in breathing resistance, or facepiece leakage, and the respirator is replaced or repaired before they return

    29 CFR 1910.134(g)(2)

  • Respirators are clean, sanitary, and in good working order, and are cleaned and disinfected at the required intervals: as often as necessary for an exclusively assigned respirator, before use by a different person when shared, and after each use for emergency, fit testing, and training respirators

    29 CFR 1910.134(h)(1)

  • Voluntary users are permitted only where the use does not itself create a hazard and are given the appendix D information, voluntary users of respirators other than filtering facepieces are covered by the medical ability and cleaning, storage, and maintenance elements, and only dust-mask-only users are left out of the written program

    29 CFR 1910.134(c)(2)

  • Retraining is administered annually and whenever workplace or respirator changes, or gaps in an employee's knowledge or use, make it necessary; no employee with a training record older than 12 months is assigned respirator work

    29 CFR 1910.134(k)(5)

  • The hazard evaluation file for each respirator task records the engineering controls considered, what was installed, and why a respirator is still needed

  • Cartridge and filter stock matches the respirators in service, the change schedule is posted at the issue point, and spent cartridges are discarded rather than returned to the bin

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This page is informational and is not legal advice. Have a qualified safety professional review any procedure before it goes into service at your facility.