Chapter 18: Personal protective equipment (PPE)

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HealthWiki > Workers' Guide to Health and Safety > Chapter 18: Personal protective equipment (PPE)

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In this chapter:

 

In this chapter:

• Chapter 18: Personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Eye protection
• Gloves
• Masks and respirators
• Protect your hearing
• Clothing and shoes

When workers complain about dangerous materials and chemicals, the boss may tell them, "Wear these gloves. They will protect you." When personal protective equipment (PPE) is part of a system of preventative measures, it can help protect workers from getting sick or injured from work. But PPE should never be the first or main form of protection. The general rule, “Change the workplace, not the worker,” puts the responsibility on the employer, where it belongs, and usually provides more and better protection. For example, replace a dangerous chemical with a safer one, enclose a machine to limit noise or vibration, or improve ventilation in the factory. It can also cost less over time for management to eliminate dangers than to provide protective equipment.

PPE may provide extra protection for an individual worker, but it should not be a substitute for changes that protect all workers.

Aprons

Glasses

Goggles

Particulate Masks

Filter Respirators

Face Shields

One size does not fit all

Personal protective equipment is "personal." To protect you, PPE has to:

• fit you correctly and be tested for fit.
• be different for women and for men (their bodies are different).
• be clean if it is PPE you reuse, or new if it is PPE you use only one time.
• be in good condition, with no holes, cracks, or ripped in any way.
• be the right kind for the danger you face.
• be replaced regularly and at any time it no longer works.
• be used as a last resort after other, safer, controls are in place.

PPE must also be comfortable enough to use all the time. Gloves that make it difficult to move your fingers, masks that are hot, glasses that are scratched or fog up — these may make it harder to work, make you work slower, and, if not well-chosen for the job, create problems such as heat stress and heart strain.

Do not let these difficulties lead you to work without the equipment you need to stay healthy. Instead of listening to the boss blame you for not wanting to protect yourself, organize to get the boss to provide better PPE, adjust piecework rates, or slow the speed of the line if necessary. Even if you feel you are strong or tough enough to work without PPE, it is better to protect your health than to risk it.

Finally, do not let PPE make you think you are protected when you are not. Wearing PPE does not mean you are safe. The only way to make sure you are protected is to fight for safer chemicals, safer conditions, and safer production schedules for everyone in your workplace.

The boss hired a specialist to train us to use new PPE. He showed us how to put it on and take it off, and how to clean and store it. But he never asked us how the PPE felt. Wearing it was hot and uncomfortable, and it made it difficult to do the job as quickly as the supervisor wanted us to do it. Some people stopped using the PPE right away. When the boss saw people working without PPE he didn’t ask why we didn’t wear it, he just said that if we got hurt it would be our own fault. When one of the workers was working without goggles, a hose on a machine broke, squirted solvent into his eye and he had to go to the hospital. Even then, he lost vision in that eye. The company refused to pay him compensation because he wasn’t wearing PPE. That’s not fair.

This page was updated:05 Jan 2024