Fit Testing versus Fit Passing 

The Moment Everything Changes 

Picture this: you have a day of respirator fit testing ahead of you. Likely weeks—if not months—of coordinating schedules and timings, confirming medical clearances are completed, and ensuring appropriate trainings for workers wearing respirators have happened. 

You’ve gathered all your equipment, and everything is set up and ready. Workers start coming in and things start rolling. The morning begins with a few fit tests performed and passed. Everything is staying right on schedule. Then boom, a fit test failure. 

If you provide respirator fit tests, then you know this feeling. One fail is no big deal, and with experience, it is typically easily navigated. But what about two, three, or four? Eventually, you’re trying different sized respirators and looking for an available alternate style or brand. As failures continue, you start looking deeper. 

When Fit Testing Reveals Bigger Problems 

This happened—and while it was a harrowing experience for that fit test administrator, it ultimately identified a company’s oversight in respirator maintenance and led to an overhaul of their respiratory protection program. 

In this instance, the company had started a system of cleaning respirators that involved respirators being dropped off at the end of a shift, disassembled for extensive cleaning (including soaking in a disinfectant), reassembled, and placed in a bin for employees to pick up by size at the start of the next shift. 

Complacency had set in for workers checking their respirators. Employees doing the cleaning were not trained on respirator inspections or manufacturer cleaning instructions. This more thorough cleaning (and lack of appropriate training) caused things like exhalation valves and straps to wear out more quickly—but disguised it much better than when they wear out from normal use. 

The fit testing identified all of this, luckily within a year of the new process being implemented. This is an extreme case, but it highlights a real benefit of respirator fit testing and why it is valuable to both get and understand failures. 

You would be shocked (or maybe not) at how many people—employers, employees, and sometimes even testers—are incredibly frustrated at even a single fit test failure, let alone several. They don’t understand why the fit test method isn’t just “working.” This is a misguided mindset. 

The Real Purpose of Fit Test Failures 

There are failures that can be the result of machine malfunction or individual factors. But if a failure results in a change of respirator size, identifies a need for retraining, or exposes an integrity issue with the respirator, then that fit test worked perfectly. That test prompted change that will help that worker minimize exposure to the hazard they face at their job. 

This is the point. 

Fit testing is not about checking a box for compliance. It is about ensuring the protection of your most valuable asset—your people. I challenge everyone to celebrate when a fit test failure leads to an improvement in respiratory protection. 

Changing the Mindset: Employee and Employer Perspectives 

If you’re the employee annoyed by taking time away from your job, remember this is all about you. Take advantage of an opportunity to actively participate in your own protection. 

If you’re the employer bothered by the cost, consider the cost (financial and otherwise) of not identifying a failure in the protection you’re counting on to keep your workers healthy. 

If you are the fit tester frustrated by the time a failure takes to address, recognize this is where you truly make a difference. Annual testing may seem like a burden, but we all know how much can change in a year. The protection of our workers is worth the trouble. 

Commit to Fit Testing, Not Just Fit Passing 

Let’s all agree to fit test moving forward—not just fit pass. 

By Stephanie Lynch, PhD, CIH, CSP (Senior Technology and Research Manager at OHD)