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36

Personal Protective
Equipment

This is an excerpt from the TUC book "Hazards at Work: Organising for safe and healthy workplaces", the best-selling guide to health and safety at work. To buy a copy order here(if you are a safety representative on a TUC training course please speak to your tutor about getting a discounted copy).

BASIC FACTS ABOUT PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

PPE should be a last resort

In many other chapters of this book, there are descriptions about the ways that employers should identify hazards, evaluate and assess risks with a view to reducing them. There should be a hierarchy of prevention and control measures where personal protective equipment (PPE) should be used only as a last resort. Engineering controls and safe systems of work should be used wherever possible instead.

Unfortunately, some employers encourage employees to use PPE without ever considering the introduction of prevention and control measures that could eliminate the use of PPE. This leads to a number of problems:

  • PPE 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 PPE in practice, and the actual level of protection is difficult to assess
  • protection is often ineffective because the PPE is not suitable, incorrectly fitted, not properly maintained, and may be used improperly
  • PPE is often designed for men, and for women workers this may introduce serious hazards and discomfort
  • PPE may restrict the wearer by limiting mobility or vision, 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 ‘blame the worker’ culture when the PPE is discarded because of the discomfort that it can cause

Hazards affecting workers

Yet even where engineering controls and safe systems of work 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, PPE is needed in these cases to reduce the risk.

In the 2008 TUC safety representatives survey, many of these hazards were identified by safety representatives in their top five workplace hazards.

For example:

  • 20 per cent mentioned high temperature
  • 14 per cent mentioned noise
  • 11 per cent mentioned chemicals or solvents
  • 9 per cent mentioned dusts

LEGAL AND OTHER STANDARDS FOR PREVENTION AND CONTROL

A considerable number of laws and regulations of general application apply to PPE. Duties can be found in the following chapters of this book:

  • SRSC Regulations 1977 – Chapter 3, with reference to safety representatives’ rights and
    consultation
  • Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 – Chapter 12. By virtue of Section 9 of this Act, no charge can be made to the worker for provision of PPE which is used only at work. Section 9 states: “No employer shall levy or permit to be levied on any employee of his any charge in respect of anything done or provided in pursuance of any specific requirement of the relevant statutory provisions.”
  • Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 – Chapter 13, with the obligations placed upon employers to make suitable and sufficient assessments of risks to their employees and non-employees. The risks should be reduced using the principles of prevention outlined in Regulation 4 and Schedule 1, which make it clear that collective measures should be implemented in preference to individual measures
  • a variety of specific regulations which include: the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 Chapter 17; the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 – Chapter 21; the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999 – Chapter 30; the Noise at Work Regulations 2005 – Chapter 34; and the Construction (Head Protection) Regulations 1989. These regulations require the provision and use of certain PPE against particular hazards, and the PPE at Work Regulations (see below) will not apply where these Regulations remain in force. For example, a person working with asbestos would, where necessary, have to use respiratory protective equipment and protective clothing under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006.

THE PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT AT WORK REGULATIONS 1992 (AS AMENDED)

Definition of PPE (Regulation 2)

Personal protective equipment means all equipment (including clothing affording protection against the weather) which is intended to be worn or held by a person at work and which protects them against one or more risks to their health and safety, and any addition or accessory designed to meet that objective. PPE includes:

  • protective clothing such as aprons, protective clothing for adverse weather conditions, gloves, safety footwear, safety helmets, high visibility waistcoats, etc.
  • protective equipment such as eye-protectors, lifejackets, respirators, underwater breathing apparatus, safety harnesses

In practice, however, these regulations will not apply to ear protectors, most respiratory protective equipment and some other types of PPE used at work. These types of PPE are specifically excluded from the PPE at Work Regulations because they are covered by existing Regulations such as the Noise at Work Regulations. However, even if the PPE at Work Regulations do not apply, the Regulations and Guidance may still be applicable, as the general principles of selecting and maintaining suitable PPE and training people in its use are common in all Regulations which refer to PPE.

Provision of Personal Protective Equipment (Regulation 4)

When health and safety risks cannot be adequately controlled by other means, employers must provide employees with suitable PPE. Self-employed persons have a similar duty to themselves. Suitable PPE means:

  • it is appropriate for the risks involved, the conditions at the place where exposure to the risk may occur and the period for which it is worn
  • taking account of ergonomic requirements, the state of health of the persons who use the PPE and the characteristics of the workstation
  • it is capable of fitting the wearer correctly, if necessary, after adjustments within the range for which it is designed
  • so far as practicable, it is effective to prevent or adequately control the risks without increasing the overall risk
  • it complies with design and manufacture provisions required under European law

Employers should ensure that PPE is provided for personal use to ensure hygiene and health.

Compatibility of PPE (Regulation 5)

Where there is more than one risk, employers must ensure that different items of PPE that have to be worn together by employees are both compatible and effective.

Assessment of PPE (Regulation 6)

Before choosing any PPE, the employer must make an assessment to determine whether the PPE they intend to provide is suitable. The assessment required should include:

  • an assessment of any risks to health and safety which have not been avoided by other mean
  • defining and comparing the characteristics that the PPE must have in order to be effective against the risks, which will also include any risks that the PPE itself may create
  • an assessment as to whether the PPE is compatible with other PPE required to be worn simultaneously

The assessment must be reviewed if:

  • there is reason to suspect it is no longer valid, or
  • there has been a significant change

Maintenance and replacement of PPE (Regulation 7)

Every employer must ensure that any PPE provided is:

  • maintained
  • cleaned or replaced as appropriate
  • in an efficient state
  • in efficient working order
  • in good repair

Accommodation for PPE (Regulation 8)

Appropriate accommodation must be provided for PPE when it is not in use.

Information, instruction and training (Regulation 9)

Employers must provide employees with information, instruction and training that is adequate, appropriate and that they understand. This will ensure that employees know:

  • the risks which the PPE will avoid or limit
  • what the PPE is for
  • how to use the PPE provided
  • any action needed by the wearer to ensure the PPE remains in an efficient state, efficient working order and in good repair

Information must be kept available, and at suitable intervals demonstrations in the wearing of PPE should be organised.

Use of PPE by employees (Regulation 10)

Employers must take all reasonable steps to ensure that employees properly use the equipment provided.

Employees must:

  • use the PPE in accordance with the training and instructions provided
  • take all reasonable steps to ensure that the PPE is returned to the accommodation provided for it after use

Reporting loss or defect (Regulation 11)

Employees must report to their employers any loss of or obvious defect in the PPE provided for them.

The self-employed

The self-employed also have a duty to obtain and use the appropriate PPE wherever there is a risk to their health and safety that cannot be adequately controlled by alternative measures.

WHAT CAN SAFETY REPRESENTATIVES DO?

Safety representatives should check that their employer is observing their responsibilities under the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992.

Involving members

Safety representatives can identify if there is a problem by:

  • carrying out a survey with workers that may be affected
  • using hazard and risk mapping with members
  • doing a special inspection that concentrates on PPE, using the inspection checklist below
  • doing a special inspection that concentrates on the information provided and the health and safety training of workers who have to use PPE

Safety representatives should report their concerns and those of their members to management in writing. Use Chapter 7 above for ideas on how you can make sure that management gets things done.

Risk assessments

Safety representatives should ask for copies of the risk assessments that the employer has done to ensure that they are preventing and controlling hazards without resorting to PPE. Where PPE is necessary, before choosing any PPE, the employer must make an assessment to determine whether the PPE they intend to provide is suitable. And the employer should consult them fully about this.

Safety policies

Safety representatives can also monitor the employer’s safety policy regarding PPE, and check that:

  • there are competent personnel that prevent or control hazards without resorting automatically to PPE
  • there is consultation “in good time” about arrangements for the appointment of competent people, and training and information arrangements
  • where there is any potential risk, that their employer has given all their workforce appropriate training and information
  • PPE is suitable to be worn by women workers
  • the introduction of PPE does not create new hazards such as the wearing of gloves in the health service causing latex allergy

Download Personal and Protective Equipment Checklist (PDF)

FURTHER INFORMATION (in alphabetical order)

Hazards magazine factsheets (see Section 6.2 for contact details)

  • No. 56: Ergonomics
  • No. 44: Risk Assessment: No Hazard, No Risk

£1.50 each for union subscribers. £6 for nonsubscribers

Hazards magazine website

Excellent news and resources on the Hazards web resource page

HSE priced and free publications on personal protective equipment

HSE website on PPE

TUC (see Section 6.1 for contact details)

Trade union information

This page http://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace/personal_protective_equipment.cfm
printed 10 February 2012 at 04:35 hrs by 38.107.179.230