Anonymous Public Comment

I appreciate OSHA's efforts in reducing unnecessary steps to employee respirator fittings, yet I urge the agency to advance this rule with caution. As a healthcare provider with inpatient experience, I have first hand experience of the conscience effort staff put into maintaining their own health, as well as their patients. The relevance for proper respirator fittings became relevant for me personally during COVID-19. During this time, employees strived to eliminate any respiratory complications related to the work environment. Even with the staff's motivation for health maintenance, I have unfortunately seen improper respirator placement or adverse events when healthcare providers contract a respiratory illness. With this being said, standardized respirator fit tests became more and more lenient after COVID-19. From personal experience, frequent respirator fittings and the prevalence of employee respiratory disease did not a strong association, but proper education did. I understand that OSHA’s proposed rule would eliminate unnecessary intervention when appropriate from respirator fittings and I support the rule’s movement forward. It is extremely important to note that if this rule advances, there need to be necessary safeguards to protect an employees respiratory health related to respirator fittings. A suggestion for this would be to increase education on proper mask fitting and an employee reporting system for concerns related to respirators.