Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) 29CFR1910 Subpart I

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This material was produced under grant number 46B4-HT15 from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor. It does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

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Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE)

• PPE includes all clothing and work accessories designed to protect employees from workplace hazards. Protective equipment should not replace engineering, administrative, or procedural controls for safety; it should be used in conjunction with these controls.

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Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) General

PPE includes the following:

• Eye Protection • Face Shields • Head Protection • Hand and Extremity Protective Equipment • Protective Clothing • Respiratory Devices • Noise and Hearing Protectors, and • Protective Shields and Barriers Rochester Institute of Technology 4

Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) General

PPE must be:

• Maintained in a sanitary and reliable condition • Available to trained users when needed, and • Used wherever necessary to protect an employee from hazards encountered in the workplace.

PPE protects against process or environmental hazards from:

• Chemicals • Radiation and Extreme Temperatures • Mechanical irritants and other physical substances

Hazards cause injury or harm through:

• Absorption • Inhalation • Physical Contact Rochester Institute of Technology 5

Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) General

Employee-owned equipment

• When employees provide their own protective equipment, the

employer

shall be responsible to assure its adequacy, including proper maintenance, and sanitation of such equipment.

Design

• All personal protective equipment shall be safely designed and construction for the work to be performed. Rochester Institute of Technology 6

Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) General

Hazard assessment and equipment selection Assess the workplace

• Written Certification identified as a Certificate of Hazard Assessment

Select the proper PPE for the hazards encountered

• Communicate the selection criteria • Select the proper type and size

Enforce the use of PPE Dispose of damaged or defective PPE

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Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) General

Employee Training

• When to use PPE • What PPE to use • How to don/doff/adjust and wear PPE • PPE Limitations • Proper care, maintenance and useful life of PPE • Disposal Employees must DEMONSTRATE and understanding of the training AND the ability to use the PPE assigned to them BEFORE being allowed to perform any work that requires the use of PPE.

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Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) General

Retraining Occurs when:

• The employer has reason to believe that any affected employee who has already been trained does not have the understanding and skill required • Changes in the workplace render previous training obsolete; or • Changes in the types of PPE to be used render previous training obsolete; Inadequacies in an employee's knowledge or use of assigned PPE indicate that the employee has not retained the required understanding or skill to properly use the protective equipment and that employee must be retrained before being allowed to perform any work that requires the use of PPE.

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Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) General

Verification of Training

The employer shall verify that each affected employee has received and understood the required training through a written certification that contains the name of each employee trained, the date of training, and that identifies the subject of the certification.

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Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) Eye and Face Protection

Eye and Face protection guards against the hazards from: • flying particles, • molten metal, • liquid chemicals, acids or caustic liquids, • chemical gases or vapors, or • potentially injurious light radiation.

Lens shading may be required to protect from radiant light, and side shields provide additional protection from flying objects and chemical splashes.

Prescription glasses for vision correction must either be incorporated into the eyewear or the eye protection must fit over the glasses without disturbing the proper position of the prescription lenses or the protective shielding.

Eye and face PPE must have markings that identify the manufacturer and must meet the requirements for strength and durability set forth by the latest version of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard Z87.1.

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Shown here is a laboratory employee, using the appropriate eye protection for the task.

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Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) Foot Protection

Foot Protection is required when there is a danger of foot injuries from:

• falling or rolling objects, or • objects piercing the sole, and • where such employee's feet are exposed to electrical hazards.

Examples of where foot protection may be required include:

• construction sites, • warehouses, • high voltage areas and • certain manufacturing processes.

Footwear must meet or be equally effective as the criteria set in the latest version of the American National Standard Institute (ANSI) standard Z-41.

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Shown here are specialized boots that are slip resistant and contaminant resistant.

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Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) - Hand

Hand Hazards include exposures to:

• severe cuts or lacerations; • severe abrasions; • punctures; • absorption of harmful substances; • chemical burns; • thermal burns; and • harmful temperature extremes.

Selection of Gloves or other hand protection is based on:

• the type and performance of the glove • the conditions present, • duration of use, and • the hazards and potential hazards identified.

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Shown here are cut resistant gloves that also provide protection from blood and other potential contaminants during food processing activities.

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Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) – Head Protection

Head protection is required when

there is a potential for injury to the head. Hard hats and similar head-gear is specifically designed to reduce the impact of a falling object, overhead, protruding or bump hazards. The hard outer shell prevents the object from direct contact with the skull, the space between the outer and inner shell absorbs the shock of the falling object, and the soft inner shell spreads the impact over a greater area, reducing the potential for injury even more.

Specialized protective head-gear

is required when there is an exposure to electrical conductors which could contact the head. Electrical protective helmets are specifically designed to reduce electrical shock hazards. Hard-hats and electrically insulated helmets must comply with or be equally effective as the latest version of ANSI Z89.1, "American National Standard for Personnel Protection-Protective Headwear for Industrial Workers Requirements,“ Rochester Institute of Technology 17

Hair nets prevent human hair from contaminating the food source during processing and packing. Rochester Institute of Technology Shown here is an employee wearing a hard-hat to provide head protection during maintenance work.

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Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) Clothing

Protective clothing prevents chemicals and other potentially harmful substances from contacting the body or skin.

Protective clothing examples: • Lab coats • Chemical suits • Warming or cooling vests • Sleeves • Leggings • Aprons • Welder’s jackets Rochester Institute of Technology 19

Specialized clothing provides not only protection for the product from human contact, but also protects the employee’s skin and clothing from contact with contaminants that may be present in the product, as seen here in this photograph of an employee wearing an apron.

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Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) Electrical Protective Devices

Insulating blankets, matting, covers, line hose, gloves, and sleeves made of rubber must be marked with the manufacturer’s name, and the type or class of the product. They must meet specific compliance standards for insulating properties and have no irregularities in the workmanship.

Electrical protective equipment must also be maintained in good and reliable condition, and have no breaks, cracks or other deformities that would impact the insulating and protective properties of the device.

Insulating gloves may be combined with other types of gloves to provide additional protection from extreme cold or other hazards, however the electrical insulating glove portion must be worn closest to the skin.

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Switchboard matting is permanently placed in front of control centers and other high voltage apparatus to provide personal protection for workers. Rochester Institute of Technology 22

Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) Respiratory

Engineering controls should be put into place before any respirator is used. The primary objective is to prevent the contamination before respirators are required. Respirator use should be required only when engineering controls fail to eliminate or lessen the hazard to acceptable limits.

When any type of respirator is used, the employer is required to provide: • A workplace hazard evaluation • Proper selection of the types of respiratory equipment, based on the hazards in the workplace • A written program and specific written procedures • Medical evaluations and surveillance • Annual Training and Fit-testing • A variety of types and sizes of respiratory equipment to accommodate different sizes and to fit the facial features of the employee • Means to clean, care for and dispose of equipment and components.

• Appropriate storage for respirators and components Rochester Institute of Technology 23

The use of a full faced respirator may be used in the food industry when dealing with operations that involve a hazardous environment. For example where Ammonia is used in food preservation an organic vapor cartridge would work in conjunction with the full face respirator.

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Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) Noise

Hearing Protection is required when noise levels exceed the regulatory limits established by OSHA.

The general rule of thumb, is that if an area is too noisy to carry on a conversation without yelling at one another, then you need to test for noise levels. Noise level testing requires a calibrated noise level meter.

When required a written hearing conservation program must be developed and implemented which includes monitoring and sampling, engineering controls, yearly medical hearing examinations (audiograms), written procedures, use of hearing protection, training, communication with employees and recordkeeping.

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If the noise in an employee’s work area is too loud to carry a conversation without yelling, then the employee should wear hearing protection like the ear plug shown above. Rochester Institute of Technology 26

Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) Summary

• PPE includes all clothing and work accessories (gloves, glasses, hard-hats and shoes, respirators, hearing protection, and clothing) designed to protect employees from workplace hazards. • Protective equipment should not replace engineering, administrative, or procedural controls; it should be used in conjunction with these controls.

• The workplace must be assessed for hazards and this assessment documented on a “Certificate of Hazard Assessment” • Protective equipment must be supplied by the employer and be appropriate to the type of hazard encountered.

• PPE must be maintained in good an reliable condition, be accessible for use and be appropriately stored.

• Employees must be trained in the proper use, storage, disposal and maintenance of PPE.

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