"Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection." "The purpose of personal protective equipment is to reduce employee exposure to hazards when engineering controls and administrative controls are not feasible or effective to reduce these risks to acceptable levels."
Protective Equipment includes clothing, respirators, and other gear that is designed to protect individuals from chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear agents.
Hazards and Risks: Understanding potential hazards and risks and the ways in which they can threaten human health and safety.
Types of Protective Equipment: Basic knowledge of protective equipment, including chemical-resistant suits, respirators, gloves, and boots.
Respiratory Protection: Understanding different types of respirators, their limitations and proper use to provide respiratory protection against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) agents.
Chemical Protection: Knowledge and understanding of chemical protective suits, hand and footwear, protective eyewear, and other equipment designed for protection against chemical agents.
Biological Protection: Knowledge and understanding of protective suits, masks, gloves, and other equipment designed to provide protection from biological hazards.
Radiological and Nuclear Protection: Understanding of protective equipment designed to protect against alpha, beta, and gamma radiation and other nuclear agents.
Selection of Protective Equipment: How to select the best protective equipment for a particular situation based on the nature of the threat, anticipated hazards, and other factors.
Donning and Doffing Protocols: Understanding proper procedures for putting on and taking off protective equipment to prevent contamination.
Decontamination Procedures: Knowledge of decontamination protocols and best practices to eliminate contamination after exposure.
Emergency Response Procedures: Understanding the importance of prompt and effective emergency response procedures when dealing with CBRN threats.
Safety Management: Management of safety and health to protect employees, the public, environment, and other assets in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
Compliance and Regulations: Knowledge of regulatory compliance requirements, including standards for respiratory protection, personal protective equipment, and hazardous materials handling.
Emergency Preparedness: Knowledge of emergency preparedness protocols and procedures to take action in case of an emergency.
Risk Assessment: Understanding the principles of risk assessment, including hazard identification, dose-response, exposure assessment, and risk characterization.
Health and Safety Program Management: Management strategies and policies for an effective health and safety program implementation, including monitoring, evaluation of effectiveness, and continuous improvement.
Hazardous Materials Handling and Storage: Understanding how to properly handle, store, and dispose of hazardous materials to prevent dangerous situations.
Chemical Spill Response: Understanding effective response procedures, including containment, mitigation, and cleanup practices in case of a chemical spill or release.
Radiation Protection: Understanding principles of radiation protection, including dose limits, monitoring, principles of radiation shielding, and decontamination procedures.
Emergency Planning and Response: Understanding the principles of emergency planning, including hazard identification and risk assessment, emergency notification, and response procedures.
Safety Culture: Building a positive safety culture that emphasizes proactive safety measures, training, and awareness to prevent incidents and protect the workforce.
Gas masks: Protective masks designed to filter chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear particles from the air.
Respirators: Similar to gas masks but are designed for industrial use and protection against dust, fumes, and other airborne particles.
Chemical suits: Protective clothing designed to cover the entire body, including gloves and boots, to protect against chemical exposure.
Biological suits: Protective clothing designed to protect the body against biological agents such as bacteria, viruses, and toxins.
Radiation suits: Protective clothing designed to protect the body against exposure to ionizing radiation.
Hazmat suits: Protective clothing designed to protect against hazardous materials, including chemicals, biological agents, and radioactive materials.
Air purifying respirators: Protective equipment that filters airborne particles from the air, including chemical, biological, and radioactive materials.
Full-body protective clothing: Protective clothing that covers the entire body from head to toe, providing maximum protection against chemical, biological, and radiological hazards.
Protective eyewear: Glasses or goggles that protect the eyes from chemical, biological, and radiological hazards.
Gloves: Protective gloves designed to protect the hands from chemical, biological, and radiological hazards.
Decontamination equipment: Equipment designed to remove or neutralize hazardous materials from the surfaces of equipment, clothing, and exposed skin.
Detection equipment: Tools designed to detect the presence of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear agents in the environment.
Emergency response equipment: Equipment used in emergency situations, including decontamination sprayers, radios, and other communication devices.
Radiation monitoring equipment: Equipment used to detect and measure radiation levels in the environment.
Blast suits: Protective clothing designed to protect against the impact of explosions, including protective helmets and other gear.
"The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, electrical, heat, chemicals, biohazards, and airborne particulate matter."
"Protective equipment may be worn for job-related occupational safety and health purposes, as well as for sports and other recreational activities."
"Protective clothing is applied to traditional categories of clothing, and protective gear applies to items such as pads, guards, shields, or masks, and others."
"PPE has the serious limitation that it does not eliminate the hazard at the source and may result in employees being exposed to the hazard if the equipment fails."
"Any of these can discourage wearers from using PPE correctly, therefore placing them at risk of injury, ill-health or, under extreme circumstances, death."
"Good ergonomic design can help to minimise these barriers and can therefore help to ensure safe and healthy working conditions through the correct use of PPE."
"Practices of occupational safety and health can use hazard controls and interventions to mitigate workplace hazards, which pose a threat to the safety and quality of life of workers."
"The hierarchy of hazard controls provides a policy framework which ranks the types of hazard controls in terms of absolute risk reduction."
"At the top of the hierarchy are elimination and substitution, which remove the hazard entirely or replace the hazard with a safer alternative."
"If elimination or substitution measures cannot be applied, engineering controls and administrative controls – which seek to design safer mechanisms and coach safer human behavior – are implemented."
"Personal protective equipment ranks last on the hierarchy of controls, as the workers are regularly exposed to the hazard, with a barrier of protection."
"The hierarchy of controls is important in acknowledging that, while personal protective equipment has tremendous utility, it is not the desired mechanism of control in terms of worker safety."
"PPE suits can be similar in appearance to a cleanroom suit."
"Engineering controls... seek to design safer mechanisms."
"Administrative controls... seek to coach safer human behavior."
"At the top of the hierarchy are elimination and substitution, which remove the hazard entirely or replace the hazard with a safer alternative."
"The purpose of personal protective equipment is to reduce employee exposure to hazards when engineering controls and administrative controls are not feasible or effective to reduce these risks to acceptable levels."
"PPE is needed when there are hazards present."
"PPE has the serious limitation that it does not eliminate the hazard at the source and may result in employees being exposed to the hazard if the equipment fails."