What Can Be Done to Ensure Proper Use of Personal Protective Equipment?
All personal protective equipment (“PPE”) 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 PPE 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 PPE to their workers and ensure its proper use.
Employers are also required to train each worker, who is required to use PPE, to know:
1) When it is necessary.
2) What kind is necessary.
3) How to properly put it on, adjust, wear and take it off.
4) The limitations of the equipment.
5) Proper care, maintenance, useful life, and disposal of the equipment.
If PPE is to be used, a PPE program should be implemented. This program should address the hazards present; the selection, maintenance, and use of PPE; the training of employees; and monitoring of the program to ensure its ongoing effectiveness.
If the PPE 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 PPE to their workers and ensure its proper use.
Employers are also required to train each worker, who is required to use PPE, to know:
1) When it is necessary.
2) What kind is necessary.
3) How to properly put it on, adjust, wear and take it off.
4) The limitations of the equipment.
5) Proper care, maintenance, useful life, and disposal of the equipment.
If PPE is to be used, a PPE program should be implemented. This program should address the hazards present; the selection, maintenance, and use of PPE; the training of employees; and monitoring of the program to ensure its ongoing effectiveness.
