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Critical Assessment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Respirator Questionnaire
Philip Harber1, Amy J Behrman, Sheri Belafsky
1From the Environmental Health Sciences, University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, Tucson, AZ (P.H.); Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (A.J.B.); Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA (S.B.); Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University of California San Diego Health, San Diego, CA (M.I.); BASF Corporation, Florham Park, NJ (J.E.K.); Atlantic Health System, Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, Morristown, NJ (R.L.); Departments of Medicine, Community and Family Medicine, and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH (R.M.); and Department of Medicine, Faculty & Staff Health and Wellness, Department of Population Health, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN (L.R.).
Objective:
Medical assessment of workers using respirators is recommended widely and generally required by the OSHA. The OSHA Respirator Standard includes a mandatory respirator questionnaire (ORQ) as an appendix. The ORQ was added over 25 years ago and has not been reassessed or updated.
Methods:
A team of experienced occupational medicine professionals reviewed the questionnaire in a standardized manner.
Results:
Many questions warrant modification to improve clarity, specificity, and relevance to current respirator types and uses. Several currently important topics are underemphasized or missing (eg, work-related asthma, infectious hazards). The ORQ should be updated to facilitate utilization by modalities other than written questionnaire.
Conclusions:
The authors recommend a systematic empirical review of the ORQ to guide a much-needed update.
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