What is 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 is it required to use PPE
• What type of PPE is required
• How to choose the right crockery, to adjust it, to wear it and how to put it away and store it after work
• The limitations of each equipment
• Proper care, maintenance and storage of the equipment

If PPE is to be used, a PPE process should be established. The process should consider the actual and potential hazards, the selection, maintenance and use of PPE. In addition, the training of employees and the monitoring of activities must be ensured. This is required to ensure the continuous effectiveness of the process.