Q: An employee assigned to clean out a furnace insisted that OSHA requires him to wear a respirator while cleaning out the furnace. Do we have to provide it and what kind of respirator do we need?
A: In order to determine if a respirator is needed air monitoring must be conducted to figure out the amount of exposure. If the exposure is over OSHA's Permissable Exposure Limit (PEL) then controls need to be used to reduce the exposure. The type of respiratory protection would be based off of the amount of exposure and the substance.
