In April 2020, N95 shortages hit every industry with respiratory hazards. OSHA's April 3, 2020 enforcement memo told compliance officers how to handle employers who reused N95s or dipped into expired stock during the crisis, across all industries.
For extended use or reuse, employers could let the same worker keep using a single N95 provided 'the respirator maintains its structural and functional integrity and the filter material is not physically damaged, soiled, or contaminated (e.g., with blood, oil, paint).' Workers had to perform user seal checks each time they donned the respirator, written respiratory protection programs had to address contamination circumstances, and storage procedures had to prevent degradation between uses.
For expired N95s, OSHA exercised enforcement discretion only when the employer showed good-faith efforts to obtain alternatives (elastomeric respirators, PAPRs, or other NIOSH-approved FFRs), monitored supplies and prioritized per CDC guidance, provided surgical masks and eye protection as interim measures, and implemented engineering and administrative controls. Only previously NIOSH-certified expired N95 FFRs could be used, and workers had to be told of their expired status. In healthcare, expired N95s could not be used during surgical procedures on COVID-19 patients or during aerosol-generating procedures such as CPR, intubation, extubation, bronchoscopy, nebulizer therapy, and sputum induction.
OSHA weighed enforcement discretion case-by-case only when all four conditions were met; absent those efforts, violations of 29 CFR 1910.134(d) would be cited as serious violations. This memo is archived, temporary pandemic guidance and is no longer current OSHA policy.