All gear (including tools, appliances, and related accessories) worn by a person while at work to protect them from one or more health or safety concerns is referred to as personal protective equipment (PPE). Your employees risk serious harm or disease without the proper PPE, including chemical burns, radiation exposure, electrical shock, etc.

The kind of PPE a person should utilize depends on the type of task they are doing. Before you buy personal protective equipment to protect oneself, you should be aware of the following 5 types of PPE:

PPE For Head Protection

Headgear can shield the head from potential physical harm to the hair, neck, nose, ears, and other upper body regions. The donning and doffing of ppe may be necessary when performing tasks like building maintenance, construction, using bolt-driving equipment, working in tunnels or excavations, or operating a motorcycle. In the workplace, there are primarily two forms of head protection used:

  • Industrial safety helmets – These are made to guard against things swinging, building, quarry blasting, and materials falling from great heights.
  • Bump caps – These are made to guard against bumping against immovable objects. They shield the head from collisions. Both maintenance workers working beneath machines and plumbers working beneath pipes can benefit from them. However, they don’t provide enough defense against the possibility of a falling object.

PPE For Hearing Protection

Hearing protection is essential for those who operate in noisy environments where it is not practical to minimize noise or exposure time. The three primary categories of ear protection are as follows:

  • Ear defenders (ear muffs) – Earmuffs/defenders completely enclose the ear, lowering the amount of noise that reaches the ears. There is a sound-absorbing substance within the cups that makes ear defenders effective.
  • Ear plugs – The ear canal is sealed by using ear plugs. To help prevent them from getting lost, they may also come with a cord that you may tie around your neck.
  • Canal caps – These are comparable to ear plugs, but since they just cover the opening to the ear canal, they provide less protection. They are appropriate for procedures where earplugs would regularly be removed and replaced.

PPE For Eye And Face Protection

The most intricate and delicate organs in the human body are the eyes. Workers exposed to liquid chemicals, acids, chemical fumes, molten metal, light radiation, or flying particles must wear eye and facial protection. Visors, over specs, eye and face shields, eyewear accessories, safety glasses, and goggles are a few examples of an eye and face PPE.

PPE For Respiratory Protection

Respiratory protective equipment (RPE) is intended to shield the user from various harmful substances during work. Respiratory PPE keeps anything from getting into the mouth and protects the entire internal respiratory system. Due to the way it is made, respiratory protection also aids in protecting the outside of the mouth and face.

There are two types of respiratory equipment.

  1. Breathing apparatus – When there is a danger that the air could become oxygen-deficient or high-risk work activities involved, a breathing apparatus is employed. Breathing in contaminated air could be fatal in these situations, and thus, the apparatus can come in handy.
  2. Respirators- They are PPE equipment that filter out contaminants from workplace air; there are three types of respirators: respirators (full-face or half-face reusable mask), simple filtering facepiece respirators (disposable mask), and power-assisted respirators.

PPE For Hand Protection

Last but not least, hand protective gear, such as nitrile gloves, can shield your employees from harmful temperature extremes, chemical burns, thermal burns, cuts, lacerations, punctures, and abrasions. Depending on your industry, you can select gloves that offer protection against cuts from sharp objects, vibrations, bacterial threats, cold or heat, and against splashes from diluted chemicals.

Conclusion

Utilizing the proper safety equipment is not that difficult, but it can significantly impact your health. You can choose your safety more wisely if you know the many types of equipment.