“Purchasing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) isn’t just a one off purchase,” says Shelley Maddocks a consultant with Newmac Safety. “Many organisations select what they think is the correct PPE equipment, issue it and then never review it and unfortunately that just isn’t enough and it’s definitely not the end of their responsibilities towards their employees.”
Newmac Safety recently had a reported incident from a client regarding potential exposure and ill health due to staff using incorrect PPE. “The client had purchased PPE, but didn’t re-assess the equipment based on new risk assessments of their activities and had no recall process to check their PPE was fit for purpose,” said Shelley.
“Having guided the client to manage and investigate the incident correctly I felt it was really important to remind businesses about best practices in maintaining and managing personal protective equipment on a regular basis and point out what they can do in the year ahead,” added Shelley.
The guide bellow is formulated from various HSE sources that organisations should find useful.
Key facts:
Before purchasing PPE, activity based risk and COSHH (Control of substances hazardous to health) assessments should be completed and documented. These assessments will identify hazards that are present, who is at risk and once safe working practices and methods have been put in place what is left to be protected by protective equipment.
PPE should only be used when nothing else can be done to prevent exposure to hazards, i.e. if hazardous cleaning fluids can’t be replaced by non-hazardous ones, if using a ladder to clean windows can’t be replaced with telescopic poles.
Hazards also include any buy products of an activity such as dust, fumes or heat etc and it is often these items that users need protection from.
Purchasing:
In order to purchase the correct PPE for an activity, specialist suppliers will need to know:
• The kind of area the activity is undertaken in e.g. is it confined? is it at extreme temperature? is it a flammable atmosphere or prone to rapid release of materials?
• How long the activity undertaken and the operator exposed.
• Whether clear verbal communication is required during the activity.
• How physical the activity is, would you consider it low, medium or high level of effort.
• What the hazardous aspects of the substance or buy product is. Purchased substance are delivered with Safety Data Sheets and hazardous buy products have data sheets provided by HSE.
• Other PPE needed during the same activity, possibly due to site or location rules.
The HSE provide a helpful guidance on purchasing PPE and a specific form to be used when considering Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE). RPE is designed to help protect operators from dusts, fumes, vapours or gases. R3 COSHH Essentials: Respiratory Protective Equipment UK Standard Assigned Protection Factor 20 (APF 20) describes respirators that filter contaminated air and breathing apparatus (BA) equipment.
When selecting a supplier or manufacturer keep in mind that reputable organisations should only offer CE marked products. This means they have been designed, produced and tested to meet legal and regulatory standards. Be careful when buying products from outside of the EU or America as production standards may not be as you would expect and fraudulent CE marking is common.
It is reassuring if suppliers and manufacturers can provide evidence of commitment to health and safety through professional membership and certification. It is also reasonable to expect a supplier of PPE and RPE will provide free advice and expertise on what you require but make sure you know your risk assessment and the context of your hazards as per R3 form above. Face masks need to be fitted and tested specifically to each individual to ensure they are providing protection.
Fitting equipment and use
Don’t assume the same make or size of equipment will be suitable for each employee able to complete the related activity. Size, weight, gender may warrant different types of equipment. Fitting and instructions on use should be sort as part of the purchase procedure, where possible. If accredited training on use is required based on level of risk and/or regulatory compliance additional training from a registered trainer who can certify competence will be necessary.
Remember that the fitting of new equipment needs to be in context with the other PPE already in use or also required, fitting and competence training should not be completed in isolation for each piece of equipment. Benefit would be gained by demonstrating collective fitting and use.
If employees or operators using PPE change their general appearance such as gaining or losing weight or growing a beard, their face fit test and RPE may no longer be suitable. It is common place to have a ‘no facial hair’ policy in environments where RPE is required.
Recall and inspection of PPE
The PPE issued is only as good as it is designed to be and once wear and tear or changes in activities take effect it may not be fit for purpose anymore. Correct cleaning, maintenance and storage of PPE need to be implemented to ensure damage or deterioration does not incur. Additionally, PPE items will have length or volume of use indication offered by the manufacturers and on this basis items should be recalled and replaced. Cleaning procedures can also provide an opportunity for items to be user inspected and faults to be reported requesting appropriate fixes or entire replacements. To ensure PPE items remain fit for purpose, despite cleaning, maintenance and storage procedures, HSE recommend managers regularly recall and inspect based on volume of use.
• Daily used items should be inspected at least monthly.
• Weekly to monthly used items should be recalled and inspected on a quarterly basis.
• Annually used items should be inspected before use.
Records of inspection should be held reporting replacement parts or fixing that has been undertaken.
References
Obtained from the HSE website http://www.hse.gov.uk on the 15/12/17
