NIOSH-Certified CBRN Respirators:
Responders’ First Line of Respiratory Protection
By Terrence K. Cloonan and Jonathan V. Szalajda
Emergency responders working to mitigate the effects of terrorist events require certified respiratory protection equipment. It has become increasingly evident that respirators are more protective to users in a variety of emergency response situations when the respirator is certified to existing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear protection. The importance of NIOSH-certified CBRN protection has emerged in recent years due to the increased threat of CBRN weapons as well as the respiratory hazards generated from man-made or natural disasters.
Synergism With Federal Agencies and Stakeholders
Since 1999, NIOSH, through partnerships with other federal agencies (OSHA, DOD, FBI, National Institute of Justice, NIST and DHS), the manufacturing community (respirator manufacturers and ISEA) and emergency response organizations (International Association of Firefighters; International Association of Fire Chiefs; NFPA and IAB) have led a standards development effort for respirators used as protection against a representative range of known or projected CBRN terrorist threats. Through the use of interagency agreements, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, have collaborated with NIOSH on the development of respirator performance requirements and supporting laboratory test procedures for evaluating, testing and defining CBRN protection for emergency response respirators.
Development of CBRN-Certified Respirator Standards
National standards for the technical performance requirements of respirators with CBRN protection were nonexistent prior to 2001. Under federal regulations since 1998, emergency responders are required to use NIOSH-certified respirators for respiratory protection as part of their respiratory protection program for hazardous materials emergency response. With the increase in terrorism awareness, NIOSH started publishing CBRN-certified respirator standards in 2001. The NIOSH standards development and respirator certification programs have led to a proportional increase in the national inventory of NIOSH-certified CBRN respirators capable of providing emergency response personnel respiratory protection from the expected hazardous materials associated with terrorist events.
NIOSH-certified CBRN respirator standards and National Fire Protection Association standards were some of the first personal protective equipment standards adopted by the Department of Homeland Security in 2004. The DHS uses these standards to award grant money for the purchase of PPE by the responder community. The use of NIOSH-certified CBRN respirators, as respiratory protection for firefighter protective ensembles and as part of hazardous materials protective ensembles, has been incorporated by the NFPA into its 472, 1404, 1500 and 1994 standards. The recently published edition of the NFPA 1981 standard on open-circuit self-contained breathing apparatus for emergency services mandates all SCBA manufactured after Aug. 31, 2007, be required to obtain CBRN certification to NIOSH standards and be compliant with state-of-the-art respirator manufacturer safety requirements.
Five NIOSH CBRN respirator statements of standard have been adopted by the InterAgency Board in its 2007 standardized equipment list. The British Standards Institution also has adapted NIOSH CBRN respirator standard performance requirements and test methods into the British standards for SCBA, powered air-purifying respirators and individual escape hoods.
State of Respirator Technology
Standards for personal protective ensembles continue to evolve, with new emphasis on CBRN protection. Universally understood EPA/OSHA protective levels A, B, C and D incorporate NIOSH-certified CBRN respirators, but responders require harmonization of those same protective levels with NFPA protective ensemble levels of protection and the new NFPA 472 standard on hazardous material competencies for responders. Public health workers and emergency responders continue to prepare and train for terrorism incidents while responding to industrial and residential public safety hazards, including hoax white-powder biological agent incidents.
Respiratory protective devices with CBRN protection are methodically being integrated into existing respiratory protection programs, with an emphasis on an “all-hazards” approach to incident response. Simultaneously, responders continue to monitor military events overseas and assess proven tactics and techniques concerning the use of NIOSH-certified CBRN respirators in that environment. The use of military-specified combination SCBA respirator with integrated PAPR by U.S. military and law enforcement personnel is accelerating the responder community’s continual quest for improved technology.
Moving Forward With Respirator Technology
NIOSH continues to move forward with CBRN respirator certification programs, standards development and PPE research. NIOSH, through the NPPTL in Pittsburgh, Pa., is the federal agency responsible for certifying respirators for use in the workplace. NIOSH continues to issue CBRN respirator approvals to qualified approval holders. Standards have been developed and are in place for five classes of respirators that have CBRN protection: SCBA, air-purifying respirators, air-purifying escape respirators, self-contained escape respirators and, recently, loose- and tight-fitting PAPR. Currently, NIOSH-certified CBRN approvals have been granted for SCBA, SCBA Retrofit Kits, APR, APER and PAPR. NIOSH guidelines for the use of certified CBRN respirators have been requested from end users. NIOSH is developing guidance documents for CBRN respirator use, including a proposed CBRN SCBA user’s guide and training aid for CBRN SCBA User’s Guide, with supporting life-size posters.
Use of CBRN and Non-CBRN Respirators
Fire academies across the nation frequently train with and use SCBA respirators (see Figure 5). These academies set the “safety tone” for the next generation of career and volunteer firefighters in their receptivity to recognizing, integrating and using NIOSH-certified respirators with CBRN protection. Currently, both NIOSH-certified CBRN SCBA and NIOSH-certified non-CBRN SCBA are being used by firefighter recruits in training academies. Many fire academies in larger cities have a complete SCBA inventory that is CBRN-certified.
Hazardous materials technicians rely on SCBA as the primary technology in protecting the inhalation exposure route. Hazardous materials/weapons of mass destruction terminology has been accepted by the NFPA 472 committee to encompass CBRN hazards in terrorism incidents. CBRN-certified SCBA are becoming more available to hazardous materials technicians. With the impact of the new NFPA 1981, Standard on Open-Circuit Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) for Emergency Services (NFPA 1981), 2007 edition, all new SCBA will be CBRN certified by NIOSH.
Law enforcement responders are sustaining existing training programs and initiating new programs on the use of SCBA and CBRN SCBA. The National Tactical Officers Association’s “Tactical Response to Hazardous Environment Using Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus” is a novel training course tailored to each police department’s needs and focuses on the tactical use of SCBA. Law enforcement is currently familiarizing, acclimatizing and relying on mission-specific protective ensembles, non-CBRN SCBA and CBRN SCBA for clandestine laboratory response, barricaded CBRN terrorist response and downed officer evacuation under hazardous atmosphere conditions. NIOSH non-CBRN and CBRN-certified APRs are used by law enforcement personnel for respiratory protection against less lethal projectiles, flash-sound diversionary devices and chemical agent dispersion devices (e.g., CS/OC fill). With the advent of NIOSH CBRN-certified respirator and NFPA-compliant chemical-biological ensemble standards, law enforcement responders are being positioned to gain increased protection from the use of those certified products during the next several years.
What’s Ahead?
NIOSH continues to test and evaluate respirators submitted by respirator manufacturers for certification under the NIOSH certification program. NIOSH also is developing CBRN certification criteria for approving other types of respirators, such as closed-circuit SCBA and supplied-air respirators, for use by responders. Due to the increased use of CBRN-certified respirators in emergency response, new challenges exist in training users to recognize a CBRN-certified respirator. NIOSH is developing user guidance products for all classes of approved CBRN-certified respirators to assist the responder community.
Current CBRN-certified respirator approvals are posted on the NIOSH Web site at www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/. Approvals are posted to the Web site by NIOSH as they occur.
For information concerning the public health law program/forensic epidemiology joint training course and protocols, visit http://www2a.cdc.gov/phlp/ForensicEpi/ForensicEpi.asp. For information on combination SCBA-PAPR, visit www.adamsfire.com/respiratory/tactical/tactical_scba.htm or www.altonpolice.com/patrol.terror.html.
Cloonan is a physical scientist in the Policy and Standards Development Branch, NPPTL, NIOSH, CDC/HHS, Pittsburgh, Pa. He can be reached at (412) 386-6701 or toc3@cdc.gov.
Szalajda is the branch chief for the Policy and Standards Development Branch, NPPTL, NIOSH, CDC/HHS, Pittsburgh, Pa. He can be reached at (412) 386-6627 or zfx1@cdc.gov.
Standards development funding was supplied by CDC, NIJ and DHS.
The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of CDC/NIOSH.