NIOSH NPPTL Stakeholder Meeting, June 26, 2007

Letter to All Interested Parties

Issue Date: February 27, 2007

From: Jonathan Szalajda, Chief, Policy and Standards Development Branch, National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory

Subject: National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory Public Meeting

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL), will conduct a public stakeholder meeting on Tuesday, June 26, 2007, at The Embassy Suites Pittsburgh International Airport Hotel, 550 Cherrington Parkway, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. The meeting will be held from 9:00 a.m. until mid-afternoon. Registration will be held from 8:00 a.m. until 9:00 a.m.

NIOSH is moving forward on plans to develop Total Inward Leakage (TIL) testing as part of respirator certification. TIL requirements will initially be required for half-mask air-purifying particulate filtering respirator certification with plans to later include similar requirements for all respirator certifications.

Recent trends in the field of personal protective equipment (PPE) testing have focused on the need to effectively evaluate PPE systems performance for TIL under laboratory conditions. While total inward leakage testing performed under laboratory conditions does not necessarily reflect expected actual field level PPE performance, it does represent a criterion for performance that influences PPE design. Although TIL testing is intended to quantify the ability of respirators to fit a range of individuals, it is not intended to replace individual fit testing as mandated by OSHA.

The proposed TIL performance requirements are not the same as present Assigned Protection Factor (APF) values. It is anticipated that the performance requirement will be based on state of the art respirator performance and will account for differences between laboratory test conditions and workplace conditions.

The proposed TIL test will use a panel of subjects from a NIOSH updated Los Alamos panel in sizes specified by the respirator manufacturer. This panel will consist of 35 test subjects with selection based upon face width and face length.

Interested parties should make hotel reservations directly with the The Embassy Suites Pittsburgh International Airport before the cut-off date of June 10, 2007. To make your hotel reservation, call 412-269-9070 and ask for Lauren. You must reference the NIOSH-NPPTL Public Meeting to receive the special group rate of $100 per night/single room that has been negotiated for meeting guests.

Please confirm your attendance to this meeting by completing a registration form and submitting it to NPPTL Event Management. You may register at this Website one of three ways: (1) electronically by accessing the on-line registration link, (2) completing the Adobe PDF registration form and submitting it by e-mail, or (3) downloading the Adobe PDF registration form and faxing it to 304-225-2003.

If you need additional information, please contact the NIOSH-NPPTL Policy and Standards Development branch at 412-386-5200. For all other questions, contact NPPTL Event Management at npptlevents@cdc.gov or 304-225-5138.

Location:
The Embassy Suites Pittsburgh International Airport
550 Cherrington Parkway
Coraopolis, PA 15108

Reservations:
Sleeping Room Block of 30 rooms at $100/single room (government rate), $110/double rate
Reserved for the evening of Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Cut-off Reservation date for this rate is Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Reservation contact:
412-269-9070 – ask for Lauren

If you need additional information, please contact the NIOSH NPPTL Policy and Standards Development branch at 412-386-5200 for all other questions or E-mail NPPTL at npptl@cdc.gov.

Federal Register Notice

Meeting Agenda

TIL Program Concept

Technical Concept

TIL Handout Procedure

TIL Handout Appendix A

Statistical Information

NIOSH NPPTL Stakeholder Meeting, June 26, 2007 [PDF – 27 KB]