Personal Protective Equipment

Personal Protective Equipment

Course Outline – Personal Protective Equipment • Why Take Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Training? • Protecting Workers • Head Protection • Eye Protection • Hearing Protection • Respiratory Protection • Foot Protection • Hand Protection • Body Protection • Summary

Why Take Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Training? • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has been instrumental in saving millions of worker’s lives in the U.S. • Hazards exist in every industry and workplace. • All workers that come in contact with hazardous situations or materials must be aware of, properly out-fitted and wear PPE to minimize their exposure to occupational hazards. • Of course the priority should be to eliminate and control the hazard at the source, but when this can’t fully be done, PPE is one of the most important lines of defense. • PPE awareness training is just one of the elements in a complete safety program that uses a variety of strategies to maintain a safe and healthy occupational environment.

Why Take Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Training? What is the first priority before looking into PPE? Where do hazards exist? Name three types of PPE?

Protecting Workers Identifying hazards: Workers must be protected from hazards that can cause injury, such as falling objects, harmful substances, and loud noise. Identifying hazards begins with a survey of the work environment: • Watch how workers perform their tasks. • Look for sources of potential injury: • Objects that might fall from above. • Repetitive motions. • Exposure to chemicals. • Sources of heat, intense light, noise, or dust. • Tools or materials that could produce flying particles.

Protecting Workers • Operational controls to protect workers: • Engineering controls (such as ventilation) • Administrative controls (work practices) • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) • Engineering and administrative controls are thebestapproaches to controlling exposure. • Use of PPE is the last choice of control.

Protecting Workers Name one of the types of controls?

Protecting Workers • Engineering controls: • The best solution is to design or redesign a workstation in a way that eliminates hazards. This is not always possible, but even a reduction in exposure is worth the effort. • If…the work environment can be physically changed to • prevent workers from being exposed to a particular hazard… • Then… the hazard is said to be eliminated by the use of • engineering controls.

Protecting Workers Engineering controls include: • Providing initial workstation design specifications that reduce or eliminate hazards. • Replace a hazardous material with a non-hazardous material. • Enclosing a work process. • Isolating a work process. • Installation of ventilation. An example of an engineering control is to place an enclosure around a noisy machine.

Protecting Workers • Administrative controls: • Work practice controls are used to reduce the impact of risk factors that cannot be completely eliminated with engineering controls. • They include: • Employee rotation • Alternative tasks • Redesign of work methods • Job task enlargement • Varying body motions • Rest breaks • Adjustment of work pace • Conditioning and stretching periods • Standard operating procedures (SOP)

Protecting Workers Administrative controls (continued): • If… workers can change the way they do their jobs and the exposure to the hazard is removed… • Then… the hazard is said to be eliminated by the use of administrative controls. • Ifengineering and administrative controls are unable to completely eliminate workplace hazards, then the proper PPE must be supplied and worn by the worker.

Protecting Workers Personal protective equipment: Organization requirements: • Perform a “hazard assessment” of the workplace to determine the hazards. • Provide the correct PPE to reduce exposure to the specific hazards. • Determine when to use PPE. • Provide PPE training. • Preventive maintenance and inspection of the PPE. Worker requirements: • Use the PPE in accordance with their training. • Inspect PPE daily and maintain it in clean and reliable condition.

Frequent hazard protection violations: As shown in this graph depicting recent OSHA violations, failure to wear head, eye, and face protection is frequently cited. More than 50% of those citations are for failure to wear head protection and approximately 25% are for not wearing eye and face protection. Protecting Workers Number of Serious Violations Head protection Eye and face protection PPE - provided, used, and maintained Life jackets and vests Lifesaving boat for employees working over water

Protecting Workers Examples of PPE: PPE must be selected based on the body part that could be injured and by the hazards that are present. Body Part PPE Eyes Safety glasses, goggles Face Face shield Head Hard hat Feet Safety shoes Hands Gloves Torso Vest, coveralls Lungs Dust mask, respirator Ears/hearing Earplugs, earmuffs

Protecting Workers Examples of PPE: PPE must be selected based on the body part that could be injured and by the hazards that are present. Body Part PPE Eyes Face Head Feet Hands Lungs Ears/hearing

Protecting Workers PPE Written Program: IfPPE is to be used to reduce exposure then a formal PPE program must be developed. This program includes procedures for selecting, providing, and using PPE. • The first step in establishing the program is to assess each workstation to determine what hazards are likely to be present. • Next, PPE that protects against the specific hazards must be selected. • After selecting the appropriate PPE, it is important to properly train the workers who are required to use it.

Protecting Workers Required awareness for workers: Workers who are required to use PPE need to be able to answer these questions: • Why is PPE necessary? • How will the PPE that is provided protect me? • What are its limitations? • When and how is the PPE to be worn? • How do I identify the signs of defective PPE? • How do I clean and disinfect PPE? • What is the useful life of PPE and how is it to be disposed of?

Head Protection • Common head injuries: • The most common ways workers receive head injuries are: • Being struck by falling objects, including tools. • Bumping their heads against objects, such as pipes or beams. • Coming into contact with exposed electrical components or wiring.

Eye Protection Eye protection must be worn: When the hazards listed below are present, eye protection must be worn by workers in the area. • Dust and other flying particles such as metal shavings or sawdust. • Corrosive gases, vapors, and liquids that may splash. • Intense light from welding and lasers.

Eye Protection Selecting the right eye protection: • Not just any eye protection will do. • Select protection to guard against the kinds of hazards present and for the work being performed. • It should also: • Be comfortable to wear • Fit well • Not restrict vision or movement • Be durable and easy to clean and disinfect • Not interfere with the function of other required PPE

Eye Protection Eye protection with corrective lenses: • Ordinary correction glasses do notprovide the required protection for workplace hazards. • Workers who normally wear correction glasses can often obtain the needed level of protection by wearing: • Correction glasses designed as safety glasses with side shields and protection-strength lenses. • Goggles that fit comfortably over correction glasses without disturbing the glasses. • Goggles that incorporate correction lenses behind protective lenses.

Eye Protection Face shields: Face shields provide full face protection. • They can protect the face from dust and splashes or sprays of hazardous liquids. • They do not protect against impact hazards. • It is best to wear a face shield in combination with safety glasses.

Hearing Protection Noise is unwanted sound: • Sound is measured in units called decibels (dBA). When workers are exposed to noise in excess of 85 dBA, it is considered unsafe and action must be taken to reduce the noise exposure. • The louder the noise is, the shorter the exposure-time can be before action must be taken. • Determining worker exposure to excessive noise considers several factors: • How loud is the noise? • How long is the exposure to the noise? • Do workers move between work areas with different noise levels? • Is noise generated from one source or multiple sources?

Hearing Protection Noise is unwanted sound: • Sound is measured in units called decibels (dBA). When workers are exposed to noise in excess of ? dBA, it is considered unsafe and action must be taken to reduce the noise exposure. • The louder the noise is, the ________ the exposure-time can be before action must be taken.

Hearing Protection Before resorting to hearing protection: • Feasible engineering and administrative controls, such as the following, must be implemented. • Doing the work differently. • Using quieter equipment. • Putting physical barriers around noisy work processes. • Placing work booths to prevent continuous noise exposures. • If engineering and administrative controls do not reduce the noise exposure to acceptable levels, then hearing protection PPE, such as earmuffs, earplugs, and canal caps, must be worn. Sometimes a combination of these are required for loud noises!

Hearing Protection Decibel chart: • This chart shows the noise levels of certain types of work. • Many construction jobs require hearing protection.

Hearing Protection When hearing protection is needed: • It is highly advised that hearing protection be worn in any work situation where the noise exposure is over 80 dBA. • In situations where the 8-hour Time Weighted Average (TWA) noise exposure exceeds 85 dBA: • Workers need to be offered and encouraged to use hearing protection devices.

Hearing Protection Requirements: Workers are required to wear hearing protection when: • The 8-hour average exposure exceeds 90 dBA • When a worker has experienced a measurable hearing loss and his/her worksite exposure is over 85 dBA.

Hearing Protection Selecting the right hearing protection: • When hearing protection is recommended or required a variety of styles need to be offered. Training must also be provided on the proper use of hearing protection. • Typically the choices include: Earplugs Canal caps Earmuffs

Respiratory Protection Respiratory Protection Program: • Thorough jobsite hazard assessments must be done to determine the respiratory hazards present (such as dusts, mists, gasses, and vapors), the amounts of the contaminants, and the appropriate respiratory protection.

Foot Protection • Use foot protection in cases like these: • When heavy objects such as barrels or tools could roll or fall onto employees’ feet. • When sharp objects such as nails or spikes could pierce ordinary shoes. • On hot or wet surfaces. • On slippery floors or walking surfaces.

Foot Protection Selecting the right safety shoe (continued): • A good jobsite hazard assessment identifies the possible sources of foot injuries. • After this has been completed, the right kind of shoes and soles, can be purchased to prevent injuries from such things as slips, falls, and punctures. • At WEI, you are not permitted to walk in production areas with open-toed shoes. This includes sandals. • If you are part of a building project, you must wear work boots to prevent injury.

Hand Protection Selecting the right hand protection: While we don’t deal with hazardous chemicals, with the exception of screen printing, do not discount the important to hand protection. Hooping Hooping for direct embroidery must be done with the hooping machine. If you cannot hoop the garments, it is YOUR responsibility to provide the worker with gloves to prevent fatigue as well as follow the guidelines for rotation and rest breaks.

Body Protection Selecting the right body protection (continued): • Protective clothing comes in a variety of materials suited to particular hazards. • Conduct a hazard assessment to identify potential sources of bodily injury. • Use feasible engineering and administrative controls to eliminate the hazards. • If the possibility of injury still exists, provide protective clothing that will protect against the specific hazards remaining. • Choose the right protection for the job!

Summary • Assess the workplace for hazards. • Use engineering and administrative controls to eliminate or reduce the hazards - before resorting to PPE. • Select the appropriate PPE to protect workers against all remaining hazards. • Train workers on why the PPE is necessary and how and when it must be used. • Train workers on how to care for their PPE and on how to recognize deterioration of the PPE. • Make sure workers are properly wearing all required PPE.

Personal Protective Equipment