Course Introduction

In H.G. Wells’ classic novel, The War of the Worlds, invading Martians wreak havoc among helpless humans until a common form of bacteria does them in. Most likely, the bacteria was in the air along with gases, smoke, and dust raised along the Martians’ path of destruction.

During a normal day, the air we breathe is mostly oxygen and nitrogen — although it still contains trace amounts of harmful gases, smoke, vapors, and dust produced by us and Mother Nature. Fortunately, our lungs have a series of mechanical and biological barriers that keep such contaminants from harming us. But healthy lungs aren’t invincible. With repeated overexposure to toxins, these protective barriers break down, resulting in irritation, discomfort, or disease. Unfortunately, we may not even be aware of the damage until it’s too late to recover.

Breathing in the Workplace

Black lung, farmer’s lung, asbestosis, silicosis — You’ve probably heard of these work-related respiratory diseases and know of their consequences. These are just a few of the medical conditions that result when workers breathe contaminated air. However, protecting workers can be difficult because:

• there are so many types of contaminants; and
• there is no single method for controlling them in all workplaces.

If you’re a business owner or manager who wants basic information about protecting your employees from respiratory hazards, this course will get you started. The course summarizes respiratory hazards, how to evaluate the hazards, and how to control them. And, it describes what employers should know before their employees use respirators.

You’ll learn about the basic types of respirators and what you need to do to develop an effective respiratory protection program – the essential requirement of OSHA’s respiratory protection standard, 1910.134. This standard specifies what you must do to ensure that your employees use respirators safely and responsibly.

Modules

To begin your training, click on the module links below. If you are just starting this course, you should start with module 1.

1. About Respiratory Hazards
2. Respirators
3. The Respiratory Protection Program
4. Medical Evaluations and Fit Testing
5. Inspection and Training

Please login to your student dashboard to access and download this FREE course PDF studyguide. You can save this study guide to your computer for offline studying, or print the study guide if you prefer.

Course 756 Final Exam

After studying the course material and answering the quiz questions, it is time to take the final exam. We highly recommend answering the module quiz questions to check your understanding of the course material. The final exam questions are typically developed from these quiz questions.

OSHAcademy course final exams are designed to make sure students have gained a sufficient understanding of the content covered within each course. To help demonstrate this understanding, students must achieve a passing score on course final exams. It is OSHAcademy's policy to protect the integrity of our exams: as a result, we do not provide missed questions to students.

This is an open book exam. Students are permitted to use a separate browser window to review course content while taking the exam. If you do not pass a final exam, you will see a "Retake Exam" button next to the course on your student dashboard.

If you have already paid for your certificate

If you have already paid for certificates, your exam score will be displayed on your student dashboard after successfully passing the final exam. If you chose PDF certificates, you can view and print your certificate and personal transcript from your student dashboard. If you chose original printed documents, they will be prepared and mailed to the address in your student account.

If you only want free training

OSHAcademy provides free access to all training materials, including course modules, practice quizzes, exercises, and final exams. However, exam scores, certificates, and transcripts are provided only if you purchase a certificate package to document your training. If you do not require official training documentation, we will archive your exam results should you decide to purchase official certificates later.

Take the Final Exam

References

1. DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2005-100, NIOSH, (2016).

2. ANSI Z288.2, American National Standard for Respiratory Protection. (2016).

3. TB Respiratory Protection Program In Health Care Facilities – Administrator’s Guide, NIOSH (Sept 1999).

4. Hanford Site Respiratory Protection Program (HSRPP), DOE. (2016).

5. Respiratory Protection: Program Development and Administration, FEMA. (2016).

Additional Resources

• Respiratory Protection-OSHA
• Respiratory Protection ETool-OSHA
• Small Entity Guide for Respiratory Protection-OSHA
• Breathe Right-Oregon OSHA
• Respirators-NIOSH
• A Guide to Respiratory Protection-NCDOL
• Sample Respiratory Protection Program-Oklahoma DOL
• Respiratory Protection Resources-NIOSH/NPPTL
• Certified Equipment List Search-NIOSH/NPPTL
• CDC A-Z Index of Terms