Safety in 30 Days, Personal Protective Equipment in the Workplace
There are ways that employers should identify and assess risks with a view to preventing and reducing them. There should be a hierarchy of prevention and control measures â starting with prevention of the risk, and if this is not possible, technical/engineering controls, safe systems of work and information or training should be used instead. Personal protective equipment should only be used as a last resort.
Unfortunately, some employers encourage workers to use personal protective equipment without ever considering the introduction of prevention and control measures that could eliminate the use of personal protective equipment. This leads to a number of problems:
Personal protective equipment protects only the person wearing it, whereas measures controlling the risk at source can protect everyone at the workplace
Theoretical maximum levels of protection are seldom achieved with personal protective equipment in practice and the actual level of protection is difficult to assess
Protection is often ineffective because the personal protective equipment is not suitable, incorrectly fitted, not properly maintained, and may be used improperly
Personal protective equipment may restrict the wearer by limiting mobility or visibility, or by requiring additional weight to be carried. As well as the health and safety problems that this may cause, it can also lead to a âblame the workerâ culture when the personal protective equipment is discarded because of the discomfort that it can cause
Using personal protective equipment in a hot climate can be very uncomfortable for the worker. For example, using a full-face mask and body protection in full sunshine during the hot season can be almost impossible. It can result in dehydration, headaches and even fainting
Different types of personal protective equipment include:
helmet or head-protector
hearing protectors such as ear-plugs or ear-muffs
eye-protectors such as goggles and face shields
breathing masks with different types of filters
gloves of different material
safety footwear
protective aprons, overalls or clothing
wet weather protective clothing
safety belts and life-lines
Hazards even where technical or engineering controls, safe systems of work and other techniques have been applied, it is possible that some hazards might remain. These hazards may lead to injuries to the:
lungs, for example, from breathing in contaminated air
head and feet, for example, from falling materials
eyes, for example, from flying particles or splashes of corrosive liquids
ears and hearing from noise
skin, for example, from contact with corrosive materials
body, for example, from extremes of heat or cold
Sometimes, personal protective equipment is needed in these cases to reduce the risks, but only to supplement the other risk control measures already put in place.
