From March 2020 we all are fighting with COVID-19 with its first lockdown. Our Health worker and the government had done everything, whatever was in there hand and after lifting the lockdown now it's our responsibility to take care of ourselves and our workers. But how?
This article will help you and your worker to stay safe and work at a similar time without direct physical contact with each other with the help of Personal Protective Equipment.
In This Article
- Purpose of Wearing PPE Kits
- Examine the different work Place
- Must wear if it is needed
- Check the eligibility of Personal Protective Equipment
- Constraints related to PPE
- Make sure adjustments are possible
- Brief advice
- Formulate safety rules
- Inform your employees of the obligation to wear PPE
Purpose of Wearing PPE Kits
The objective of wearing PPE Kits is to prevent injuries and damage to health.
The introduction of PPE Kits into a company must always be preceded by an assessment of the possibilities of preventing risks through substitute measures or measures of a technical or organizational nature.
Examine the different workplace
The workstations (areas, technical installations, and activities) are assessed using a list of requirements established based on a risk assessment. To do this, it is necessary to draw up a specification containing in particular the following information:
- activities
- types of dangers
- risk areas
To be able to take the necessary measures and choose the appropriate Personal Protective Equipment, it is essential to know the specific conditions specific to the different workstations. Here are a few examples:
- ambient temperature
- contact temperature
- thermal rays
- sound intensity
- dust generation
- severe weather
- hygrometry
- nature of harmful substances and duration of exposure
- ground configuration
Must wear if it is needed
In some situations, PPE Kits should be preferred. In an emergency, PPE Kits are often the only way to protect those present, eg. If a fault occurs leading to a leak of dangerous substances within an installation and it is not possible to take the necessary technical measures in good time.
In other cases, the wearing of Personal Protective Equipment is even required by law.
- construction work on buildings or bridges until the completion of the shell
- work carried out near cranes, earthmoving machinery, or special machines used in civil engineering
- digging of excavations and wells and earthworks
- work in quarries
- underground work
- mining work
- deconstruction or demolition work
- construction work in wood or metal
- work in and out of pipes
Personal Protective Equipment is also essential in the event of rare or occasional interventions. Some examples:
- Fall protection PPE Kits on a roof that is rarely visited and for short term work
- protective clothing against strong electromagnetic fields when performing maintenance work on mobile telephony antennas
- protective clothing in the event of work occasionally involving exposure to cold
Check the eligibility of Personal Protective Equipment
Employees must have Personal Protective Equipment if they are working in a populated place, the use of which can be reasonably required.
It is essential to take into consideration the health problems and physical handicaps that some of them may present. People with heart or lung problems, for example, may not be able to perform certain jobs that require respiratory protection.
Protective glasses and full respiratory masks with optical correction are essential in case of vision problems; a deformity of the feet requires orthopedic protective shoes, etc.
Constraints related to PPE
PPE such as gloves or protective suits against heat is likely to inconvenience their users or greatly alter their perception. The center of gravity can, for example, change when wearing a respiratory protection device, while unfavorable conditions such as heat can increase the arduousness of the work.
Set up the affected workstations taking these factors into account. It may be necessary to modify the configuration of the workstations or to reduce the duration of the interventions. Also, assess the possibilities of leakage or evacuation available to wearers of PPE Kits.
Make sure adjustments are possible
PPE Kits must be adapted to the morphology of the users. It is therefore important that the right sizes are available and that the equipment can be properly adjusted.
Take into account the personal wishes of employees as much as possible, in particular about clothing as well as protective equipment for the eyes, hearing, feet, and respiratory tract.
If possible, do not use Personal Protective Equipment that must be used by more than one person, as this must then be adjusted before each use. This option is also not recommended for hygiene reasons.
Brief advice
- Make suitable Personal Protective Equipment available to your employees and let them choose the right one for them.
- Formulate clear and unequivocal safety rules, and put up signs corresponding to the workstations concerned.
- Persuade your employees about the need to wear PPE kit. Superiors must set an example by also wearing the required PPE.
- Show your employees how to use PPE kits correctly.
Formulate safety rules
Based on the examination of the workstations, you must then develop rules for the safe use of Personal Protective Equipment. It is advisable to involve the relevant executives in this process because they are the ones who will then have to apply these instructions.
The safety rules, instructions, and prescriptions relating to the use of PPE must be:
- formulated unequivocally
- mentioned if possible in the employment contract or job description of the workers concerned
- Can also be consulted in the operating instructions of the equipment, in the directives relating to the production processes, in the instruction manuals, in the work instructions, etc.
The appropriate mandatory sign must be affixed in sectors (areas, workstations) where wearing PPE is systematically compulsory. Left: Pictogram indicating the obligation to wear a protective helmet.
Inform your employees of the obligation to wear PPE
Managers are responsible for informing staff of the requirement to wear Personal Protective Equipment. Company employees must know and feel that the management attaches great importance to their protection and that the legal provisions are being observed.
Explain to them why it was not possible to eliminate the risks by technical or organizational measures and persuade them of the importance of protecting themselves to preserve their health.
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