OSHA Reopens Comment Period on Easing Medical Evaluations for Filtering Facepiece Respirators

The Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration reopened the rulemaking record for a proposed revision to its Respiratory Protection Standard, per a Federal Register notice signed by President Donald Trump and published June 3, 2026.

The proposal targets medical evaluation requirements in 29 CFR 1910.134 for two categories of respirators: filtering facepiece respirators and loose-fitting powered air-purifying respirators. These devices are widely used across construction, manufacturing, healthcare, and general industry to protect workers from airborne particulates, chemicals, and other hazards.

The existing standard requires employers to provide medical evaluations to determine each employee's ability to use a respirator before fit testing or use. The proposed rule would remove some of those medical evaluation obligations specifically for the two respirator types.

The original proposed rule was published July 1, 2025, at 90 FR 28463, with an initial comment period that closed in 2025. Following review by OSHA's Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health, the agency is reopening the record for an additional 30 days. Written comments must be submitted by July 6, 2026.

Downstream, the extended comment window allows employers, labor organizations, respirator manufacturers, and medical professionals to submit data on the safety and feasibility of reduced medical evaluations. Once the record closes, OSHA must consider all timely comments before issuing a final rule.

A final rule would alter compliance obligations for thousands of workplaces that use these respirators daily, potentially reducing administrative and medical costs while shifting responsibility for assessing worker fitness. The regulation ID number 1218-AD48 tracks the proceeding.

This marks the latest step in a rulemaking first proposed in 2025. The Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health examined the proposal before OSHA decided to solicit further public input.