Personal Protective Technology Program Stakeholder Meeting, March 2 – 3, 2010

Letter to All Interested Parties

Issue Date: January 12, 2010

From:Les Boord, Program Manager, NIOSH Personal Protective Technology Program
Director, National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory

Subject: Personal Protective Technology Program Stakeholder Meeting, March 2 – 3, 2010

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Personal Protective Technology (PPT) Program will hold our third stakeholder meeting on March 2 and 3, 2010, at the Hyatt Regency Pittsburgh Airport.

We are pleased to announce that John Howard, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, Director of NIOSH, will be the luncheon Keynote Speaker on Tuesday, March 2. Dr. Howard has been a leader in the field of occupational and public safety for the past 18 years. He served his first term as the director of NIOSH from 2002 through 2008. For two years of this term he acted as coordinator of HHS’ World Trade Center Health Programs. He again stepped into his role as director of NIOSH in July of 2009. Prior to his NIOSH appointment, he served as the chief of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) in California’s Department of Industrial Relations and was an Assistant Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the University of California.

In order to facilitate interactive discussions, the meeting format will include both poster sessions and a series of breakout sessions. The posters will present NIOSH PPT Program research, standards development, and respirator certification information. The breakout sessions will include facilitated discussion on the following subjects:

Session 1: Pushing the Limits: Designing the Next Generation of N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirators (FFRs)
This session will discuss the different styles of N95 FFRs, user aspects, and economic impact issues. Participants will be invited to discuss design issues, limiting issues in the use of N95 respirators along with current and future needs in the marketplace with these respirators.

Session 2: PPE Selection, Interoperability and Compatibility Issues: Dysfunction or Co-Function
The discussion will focus on a “systems level” approach in providing full body protection to exposure hazards including inhalation, dermal, and physical. The complexities in selection of personal protective equipment such as protective clothing, protective ensembles (garments, boots, and gloves), respirators, and other mission essential equipment will be discussed.

Session 3: Protective Clothing Technologies, Materials and Performance Criteria
A sampling of the current research efforts will be reviewed to provide a basis for discussion during the session. Areas for discussion include chemical permeation, nanoparticle penetration, heat stress, stored thermal energy, ensemble testing, and other protective clothing and equipment issues.

Session 4: Informing Stakeholders of Counterfeit Respirators and Misrepresentations of Approval: Buyer Beware
This session will focus on the mechanisms currently used by the PPT Program to communicate with stakeholders. The focus will be on recent issues and the communication instruments used by NIOSH to alert end users of NIOSH respirator certification revocations, performance failures, quality control issues, and counterfeit respirator products. Participants will be invited to discuss future approaches, informational campaigns, and dissemination strategies for NIOSH to better alert end users of these non-conforming respirator issues.

The Hyatt Regency Pittsburgh Airport is located at 1111 Airport Boulevard, Pittsburgh, PA 15231, adjacent to the airport terminal. Registration and poster viewing will begin at 7:15 AM on Tuesday, March 2 with the welcome session commencing at 8:00 AM. A block of sleeping rooms is being held for the nights of March 1, 2, and 3 at the Hyatt Regency at the rate of $114 per night. Reservations can be made by calling the hotel at 724-899-1234 and asking for the NIOSH room block. The cut off date for the special group rate is February 15, 2010. Please reserve your hotel room as soon as possible to ensure availability of the special negotiated rate for those attending this meeting.

You may register for the meeting electronically or you can download the Adobe PDF form and fax it to 412-386-6716. On-site registration will also be available.

This meeting will also be available through remote access capabilities (Microsoft Live Meeting), whereby participants simultaneously listen and view presentations over the internet. Each breakout session will have a specific call-in number. These phone numbers will be provided to participants registered for Live Meeting prior to the meeting. To register to attend by remote access, complete the registration form and check the remote access attendee block. Questions related to remote access should be directed to John Sporrer at 412-386-6435. This option will be available to participants on a first-come, first-serve basis and is limited to the first 100 participants.

For additional information, please contact John Sporrer telephone 412-386-6435, fax 412-386-6716 or e-mail npptlevents@cdc.gov. The meeting agenda, as well as links to any materials for the meeting, will be posted to the website prior to the meeting.

Letter [PDF – 32 KB]

Agenda

Breakout Session Questions