What is required? An employer has an obligation to provide protective equipment PPE, including personal protective equipment for eyes, face, head, and extremities, and protective clothing and barriers. The employer must also make sure employees use and maintain PPE in a sanitary and reliable condition. What is proper use? Personal Protective Equipment must be worn and used in a manner which will make full use of its protective qualities. Take a look at the photo to the left. If you came upon an employee using PPE improperly in your workplace, what would you recommend? What recommendation would you make to this employee?

Low rates of compliance in wearing PPE usually indicate the safety management system is failing in some way. Any one of the following root causes may result in general non-compliance:

1. the employer does not provide quality PPE
2. the employer does not properly supervise the use of PPE
3. the employer fails to enforce the use of PPE, or
4. the employer does not properly train employees on the use of PPE

Who pays for PPE?

What are the different categories of PPE? PPE includes: Face and eye protection Head protection Foot protection Hand protection Protective clothing Protective ointments Shields Barriers Restraints

When and where is PPE required? PPE is required wherever the following conditions are encountered that are capable of causing injury or impairment by being absorbed, inhaled, or physically contacted: hazards of processes environment hazards, chemical hazards, radiological hazards, or mechanical irritants

De-gloving of a finger caused by a ring. From Bob F.

The accident occurred when the individual was jumping off the side of an Army tow truck. He placed his hand on the railing of the bed and jumped off. The ring caught on the side of truck bed. Upon reaching the ground, the ring had removed all the skin from the finger, leaving the muscles, bone and fingernail exposed.

The individual was rushed to an emergency room where the finger was inserted into the wall of the stomach area. A pedicle graft was performed using the skin from the stomach area. After more than eight operations and over a 100 plus days in the hospital the finger is semi-useable.

Nothing but air? NOT! From Joan R.

I took care of a man who got his ring caught on a basketball hoop as he made a dunk and pulled his whole finger off---skin, bone, and all at the knuckle. Not a pretty site.

Work Clothing Clothing must be worn which is appropriate to the work performed and conditions encountered. Loose sleeves, ties, lapels, cuffs, or other loose clothing must not be worn near moving machinery. Make sure that you immediately remove clothing that becomes saturated or impregnated with flammable liquids, corrosive or toxic substances, irritants, or oxidizing agents. Don't wear it again until it's properly cleaned.

Hazard Assessment

1910.132 General Requirements (d) Hazard assessment and equipment selection (1) The employer shall assess the workplace to determine if hazards are present, or are likely to be present, which necessitate the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). If such hazards are present, or likely to be present, the employer shall: (i) Select, and have each affected employee use, the types of PPE that will protect the affected employee from the hazards identified in the hazard assessment; (ii) Communicate selection decision to each affected employee; and, (iii) Select PPE that properly fits each affected employee. Note: Non-mandatory Appendix B contains an example of procedures that would comply with the requirement for a hazard assessment. (2) The employer shall verify that the required workplace hazard assessment has been performed through a written certification that identifies the workplace evaluated; the person certifying that the evaluation has been performed; the date(s) of the hazard assessment; and, which identifies the document as a certification of hazard assessment.

If the person conducting the hazard assessment discovers that hazards requiring PPE are present, or likely to be present, then management must:

• select, and have each affected employee use, the types of PPE that will protect the affected employee from the hazard identified in the hazard assessment;
• communicate selection decisions to each affected employee; and,
• select PPE that properly fits each affected employee.

• Eye and Face Protection: ANSI Z87.1-1989
• Head Protection: ANSI Z89.1-1986
• Foot Protection: ANSI Z41.1-1991

Engineering Controls Workplace hazards may be corrected using engineering controls which may be thought of as replacing or redesigning machinery, equipment, and tools, and/or substituting materials. Engineering controls are the "first line of defense" against injury/illness, because they have the potential to completely eliminate a hazard, and do not rely on human behavior to be effective. For instance, rather than require employees to wear respiratory protection which must be monitored, inspected, trained, managed, it's much more effective to install a ventilation system that does not require any of those management activities.

Administrative or Management Controls Management controls can be accomplished with the stroke of the pen. It involves changing or redesigning work procedures, rescheduling breaks, changing the number of workers doing a job, and using personal protective equipment to reduce the frequency and duration exposure to the hazards of tasks. Using management controls alone is not as effective as engineering controls because, in most cases, they only reduce exposure - they don't eliminate the hazard. And even more importantly, management controls do rely on human behavior (which introduces many variables in the long run) which must be managed.