Call to action: Youth and filtering facepiece respirator (FFRs)

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly heightened public awareness of respiratory protection, yet a critical gap persists in evidence-based guidance and appropriately designed filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs), such as N95s, for youth (≤18 years of age) in the U.S. This commentary, informed by the author's international experiences training agricultural youth living and working on farms and insights gleaned from a systematic review, highlights an urgent need for better FFR solutions for this population. Acknowledging the sensitive nature of this topic and the early stage of the science, the evidence suggests that current FFR designs and regulatory frameworks are predominantly adult-centric, neglecting the unique physiological and anthropometric characteristics of growing children and adolescents. Industrial hygienists, health care providers, and public health professionals have crucial roles to play in advocating for youth-specific FFR designs, standardized fit-testing protocols, and ethical pediatric medical evaluations.