Conferences
Is Your Respirator Protecting You? Hawaii's Experience
Matthew Miyahira, Andrea Kawabata, and Stuart Nakamoto
Summary
Coffee leaf rust, avocado lace bug, two-lined spittlebug, basil downy mildew, several viruses in fresh produce, and the coconut rhinoceros beetle are recent arrivals in Hawaii. In 2023 and 2024, the risks involved in applying chemical sprays to combat the pests provided valuable teachable moments for our project team. We provided training events for Extension faculty and workshops for agricultural and livestock producers on respirator use and fit testing, the Federal Worker Protection Standard (WPS), sprayer calibration, and pesticide calculations together with crop insurance and its recordkeeping - with our goal of reducing the financial, production, legal, and human risks of Hawaii's producers.
During three fit-testing events, we discovered counterfeit and misrepresented respirators purchased online in which manufacturers either attempted to copy an actual NIOSH-approved model or falsely marketed and sold respirators as NIOSH-approved. During fit testing with farmworkers, these respirators could not provide a tight seal so put wearers at risk on whether they received actual protection. As a major impact of this project, we were able to educate the participants and replace counterfeit or misrepresented respirators with NIOSH-approved, fitted respirators to help keep workers safe while working with and around pesticides.
Through this project, we trained 12 extension faculty as WPS trainers, provided annual WPS education to 113 workers and handlers, and exposed 53 participants to crop insurance and its record keeping. We also trained three farm managers to conduct respirator fit tests, provided 43 medical evaluations, completed 45 respirator fit tests, and replaced five counterfeit or misrepresented respirators.
Details
| Conference | 2025 Extension Risk Management Education National Conference |
| Presentation Type | Poster |