Personal Protective Equipment

Personal protective equipment, commonly referred to as "PPE", is equipment worn to minimize

exposure to hazards that cause serious workplace injuries and illnesses. These injuries and
illnesses may result from contact with chemical, radiological, physical, electrical, mechanical, or
other workplace hazards. Personal protective equipment may include items such as gloves, safety
glasses and shoes, earplugs or muffs, hard hats, respirators, or coveralls, vests and full body suits.

What can be done to ensure proper use of personal protective equipment?

All personal protective equipment should be safely designed and constructed, and should be
maintained in a clean and reliable fashion. It should fit comfortably, encouraging worker use. If the
personal protective equipment does not fit properly, it can make the difference between being safely
covered or dangerously exposed. When engineering, work practice, and administrative controls are
not feasible or do not provide sufficient protection, employers must provide personal protective
equipment to their workers and ensure its proper use. Employers are also required to train each
worker required to use personal protective equipment to know:

 When it is necessary
 What kind is necessary
 How to properly put it on, adjust, wear and take it off
 The limitations of the equipment
 Proper care, maintenance, useful life, and disposal of the equipment

If PPE is to be used, a PPE program should be implemented. This program should address the
hazards present; the selection, maintenance, and use of PPE; the training of employees; and
monitoring of the program to ensure its ongoing effectiveness.

Hazards and Solutions

The following references aid in recognizing the need for personal protective equipment
(PPE) and provides information about proper PPE selection and usage.

1.Eye and Face Protection

Overview
Thousands of people are blinded each year from work-related eye injuries that could have been
prevented with the proper selection and use of eye and face protection.
OSHA requires employers to ensure the safety of all employees in the work environment. Eye and
face protection must be provided whenever necessary to protect against chemical, environmental,
radiological or mechanical irritants and hazards.

2.Fall Protection
Overview
Falls are among the most common causes of serious work related injuries and deaths. Employers
must set up the work place to prevent employees from falling off of overhead platforms, elevated
work stations or into holes in the floor and walls.
What can be done to reduce falls?
Employers must set up the work place to prevent employees from falling off of overhead platforms,
elevated work stations or into holes in the floor and walls. OSHA requires that fall protection be
provided at elevations of four feet in general industry workplaces, five feet in shipyards, six feet in
the construction industry and eight feet in longshoring operations. In addition, OSHA requires that
fall protection be provided when working over dangerous equipment and machinery, regardless of
the fall distance.
To prevent employees from being injured from falls, employers must:

 Guard every floor hole into which a worker can accidentally walk (using a railing and toe-board
or a floor hole cover).
 Provide a guard rail and toe-board around every elevated open sided platform, floor or runway.
 Regardless of height, if a worker can fall into or onto dangerous machines or equipment (such
as a vat of acid or a conveyor belt) employers must provide guardrails and toe-boards to prevent
workers from falling and getting injured.
 Other means of fall protection that may be required on certain jobs include safety harness and
line, safety nets, stair railings and hand rails.

OSHA requires employers to:

 Provide working conditions that are free of known dangers.

 Keep floors in work areas in a clean and, so far as possible, a dry condition.
 Select and provide required personal protective equipment at no cost to workers.
 Train workers about job hazards in a language that they can understand.
 3.Respiratory Protection
Overview

Millions of workers are required to wear respirators in various workplaces throughout the United
States. Respirators protect workers against insufficient oxygen environments, harmful dusts, fogs,
smokes, mists, gases, vapors, and sprays. These hazards may cause cancer, lung impairment,
diseases, or death. Compliance with the OSHA Respiratory Protection Standard could avert
hundreds of deaths and thousands of illnesses annually.
Respirators protect the user in two basic ways. The first is by the removal of contaminants from the
air. Respirators of this type include particulate respirators, which filter out airborne particles, and air-
purifying respirators with cartridges/canisters which filter out chemicals and gases. Other respirators
protect by supplying clean respirable air from another source. Respirators that fall into this category
include airline respirators, which use compressed air from a remote source, and self-contained
breathing apparatus (SCBA), which include their own air supply.