[Audio Description]  People wearing different iterations of face masks, including medical and hazmat respirators. People spraying crops. Vintage photos of World War I soldiers wearing gas masks. On screen text. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. NIOSH. One Hundred Years of Respiratory Protection. National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory. NPPTL. 

>> A century of remarkable progress has passed since the first U.S. respirator approval.

[Audio Description]  Scientists testing products in a laboratory. Miners deep underground, many appear to be children. 

At the dawn of the 20th century, America was changing, and the cost of industrialization was often borne by our most vulnerable citizens. Many paid with their health, their safety, and their lives. In disaster after disaster, the simple but profound inability to breathe was the culprit.

[Audio Description]  New York Times newspaper headlines. President Taft to Witness A Mine Explosion: With Thousands of Others He Will be Shown the Grim Tragedy of the Coal Workers and What the Government is Doing to Check the Death Roll. Lives Lost in Mines, 2,805. 

Many individuals were lost to dangerous dusts, vapors, and undetectable gases. This was particularly true for those working in mining. Social reformers sounded the alarm, and Congress passed laws and regulations, making bold commitments to independent science in the public's name.

[Audio Description]  Miners without masks stand next to a horse. Newspaper headline. Roosevelt Decries Waste of Resources. Wants Bureau of Mines. Later, a large group of men wearing suits and hats surround a sliding door cut into a hillside. 

In 1910, Congress created the Bureau of Mines, which soon developed an expertise in respiratory protection. The Bureau responded in World War I, when the U.S. War Department needed masks to protect soldiers from gas attacks.

[Audio Description]  Two soldiers stand in a 4 foot trench, each wearing a full face mask with clear goggles covering their eyes. Then, two men use a sledge hammer to knock an underground support beam into place.

After the war, much of the Bureau's work focused on research and testing respirators for saving trapped miners. This culminated in 1920, when the Mine Safety Appliance Company received the first approval for the Gibbs Breathing Apparatus.

[Audio Description]  A three-compartment backpack with two hoses that drape over the shoulders and connect to a breathing mask covering the nose and mouth. The backpack connects to a pack on the miner's hip. The bottom of the pack holds a cylindrical canister; a wooden box slips into the pack above this canister; and a tri-folded accordion style pump sits on top. 

Named for a Bureau inventor, it was the first successful, self-contained breathing apparatus. The trend towards 20th century workers safety efforts continued, producing the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, forming OSHA and NIOSH.

[Audio Description]  Black and white photo of President Nixon signing the Job Safety Bill, ending long struggle.

NIOSH took over respiratory protection from the Bureau of Mines and eventually this work and PPE, Personal Protective Equipment, research merged into the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory. NPPTL established an integrated approach to occupational safety and health. Built upon quality partnerships, as it strived and continues to strive, to advance the application and use of PPE.

[Audio Description]  Official seals of the following: Department of Justice; U.S.Department of Labor; U.S. Department of Defense; National Institute of Standards and Technology. U.S. Department of Commerce. 

The founding of NPPTL represented the beginning of a new wave of standard setting, the modular approach to rulemaking and leadership and consensus standard development. Testing and certifying respirators, as well as leading research to advance the knowledge of respiratory protection serve to improve the safety and health of the workers who rely on these products.

[Audio Description]  Technicians test masks, both current and vintage photos. Speaker: Christopher Coffey, PhD. Associate Director of Science, NPPTL. 

>> I think what impresses me the most is their foresightedness and how they actually developed the program from nothing. They didn't have any examples of how to go about developing any type of approval or certification program, back in the early 1900's.

[Audio Description]  Speaker: Lee Greenwald, PhD. Physical Scientist, NPPTL. Then, Speaker: Jeffery Peterson, Branch Chief, NPPTL. Images of different occupations that use face masks including medical, research laboratories, miners, fire fighters, house painters.

>> They had to really, critically and scientifically, understand a lot of the science that went into developing our test procedures and our review criteria for the approval of respirators.

>> Yeah, the big thing that we need to remember is, is those folks had limited resources to do research and build requirements around the types of devices that they needed to get to the mining community. So, based on what -- the technologies that they had at the time, I think that was a really big effort that needs to be recognized.

>> The diversity of the American workplace, not just the work performed, but the people performing it rose in priority. Researchers studied respirator filtration and fit and other advances to better protect workers. Advancements in respiratory protection became vital, as tuberculosis reemerged to endanger healthcare workers and first responders. To respond to global terrorism, NPPTL studied how respirators could protect first responders from emerging chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats.

[Audio Description]  Photos of rescue workers on the rubble of the New York World Trade Center towers.

It was none too soon. The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks shocked the nation, dramatically bringing attention to respiratory protection. The NPPTL team rushed to the World Trade Center's site, with fellow experts from other NIOSH divisions and other government agencies. Government professionals worked tirelessly. Efforts concentrated on more quickly developing standards to evaluate respirators for use against the emerging threats. NIOSH and its partners developed new standards and ramped up test methods. Research, standards, conformity assessment, and effective guidance were all targeted toward first responders. This historic time drew on NPPTL's abilities and dedication to serve. These experiences transformed NPPTL.

[Audio Description]  In a testing laboratory, a female scientist examines a respirator mask. 

>> Nine-eleven changed the game, because I think the one thing that became clear is that we needed protection. We needed a type of protection that was basically for the unknown. So, we brought together consolidated protection that covered many different families of chemicals. So, I think that was the one big thing that's out there, is that, you know, some things emerge that can be used for more than one hazard assessment.

>> While continuing to prioritize the respirator-approval program, NPPTL also evaluates new technologies, and efforts to address emerging hazards sets the stage for NPPTL's next century. Its research, testing, and approval agenda is always emerging.

>> Another innovation that I see coming is smart respirators, where they actually have sensors built into the facepiece to measure the person's actual exposure while they're wearing their respirator.

[Audio Description]  Speaker: Michael Bergman, MS. Research Scientist, NPPTL.

>> A researcher in this field really needs to keep up with the trends and new hazards, new technologies that they could use in their research, or new PPE technologies. So, for example, like real-time monitoring. Could a respirator be fit with a device that could give you a real-time number of the performance of the respirator, as the person is wearing it? And if the person had a problem with the respirator they're wearing, could they know immediately, and then possibly, you know, leave the area to get in a safe zone?

[Audio Description] Text on screen. Partners labeled: AFL-CIO; International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA); Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses (AORN); American Industrial Hygiene Assocciation (AIHA)

>> Partnerships, safety culture, and technical know-how empower NPPTL's agenda.

>> I'm on a project where we use partnerships to make sure our, you know, our project, idea, and study design is something that would be helpful to that, you know, sector in the world. And partners and stakeholders really help get our research from the lab and manuscripts to part of a standard. So, our partners, you know, are really the ones that help us get the research heard by others.

>> Partnership is important, and always looking at what are the user needs. And then also partnering with the PPE manufacturers, because they are ultimately the people who will make the devices. And also the experts in the field, that know the health effects.

[Audio Description]  Photos of contemporary men and women in diverse working environments. 

>> Today, NPPTL continues to think of workers. From the miner, to the healthcare professional to the first responder. Focus on the worker is maintained with cool, scientific heads and warm hearts. What does this give the world? A capability to respond to rising threats, like wild land fires and environmental hazards; a drive for respirators as unique as workers and their many jobs; a curiosity for innovations to help workers safely breathe in dangerous settings; a keen focus on new technologies, like robotics, big data, and smart respirators; a commitment to ensure adequate stockpiles of working respirators; a mission to serve user wants and respiratory protection needs; an agility for responding to new inhalation hazards, like the opioid crisis; a method based on testing, not assumptions. All this and more come from scientific leadership and excellence.

>> When I think of excellence and integrity and quality of work that we do, I guess what comes to mind is we have so many different types of research, and for our type of approval program, what's unique is that after that respirator is on the market and in the customer hands, our research and our quality doesn't stop. We have several projects and programs that we evaluate or conduct post-market research.

>> On the 100th anniversary of the first respirator approval, we thank those who came before, those working today, and all who will carry the mission forward.

>> I would encourage new people coming into the field to really try to understand what the topics are, understand that these are actual people wearing the devices, having to use the PPE, to protect themselves. And because they're depending on these devices, that we really have to think about how they're used, what are the issues, and then to keep up with current technology out there.

>> I'm helping people, and I'm helping to mentor the next generation. It will be here after I'm gone.

>> We celebrate the story of the American workplace, as well as the informed policy, intentional cooperation, and work by dedicated public servants.

>> You've got to rely on personal protective equipment. So, firstly, it's not the first line of defense. It's the last. And then, just the importance of when you are at that level, where that's your last line of defense, is you have to have confidence in the device, and if it has the NIOSH label on it, you can certainly have confidence that it will protect you for its intended purpose, but have you selected the right one for the hazard?

[Audio Description]  Speaker: Cathy Calvert. Physical Scientist, NPPTL.

>> I'm proud of our job. I'm proud of everybody doing what they want to do, what they love to do, and I don't know, a feeling of, we're doing something out there for the user.

[Audio Description] People wearing different iterations of face masks, including medical and hazmat respirators. On screen text. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. NIOSH. National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory. NPPTL. 

>> Through a century of workplace triumphs and tragedies, NPPTL's mission continues, motivated by the urgency of respiratory protection, a matter of life and death.

[Audio Description]  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. One Hundred Years of Respiratory Protection. 1919-2019. This video was produced by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Delivering on the nation’s promise: safety and health at work for all people through research and prevention. www.cdc.gov/NIOSH. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.