Personal Protective Equipment at Work

Most people would agree that the industrial work place can be a fairly dangerous place to be and that everything possible should be done to keep people who work in this type of environment as safe as possible. One way in which this is done is through the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), this is any equipment (including clothing) that should be worn or used by a person at work to protect them against risks to his health and safety.

If you work in an environment where there are risks to your health and safety then your employer will usually need to provide you with some form of PPE, in fact there are regulations in place that make it a legal requirement for them to provide this type of protection to their employees. These regulations are called The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992. While many people may see Regulations as another layer of red-tape to add to what should be good old-fashioned common sense it should be a comfort to know that as an employee you have a legal right to be provided with PPE while at work.

In fact the regulations cover a lot of aspects for the provision and use of PPE that may not be thought of on a day to day basis. For instance, Regulation 4 states that the need for PPE applies equally to self-employed people as it does for employees of companies. Regulation 4 even goes on to state when PPE will and will not be suitable, saying that it will not be suitable unless it takes into account the risks faced by the employee, their state of health, how the PPE fits and its ability to prevent or control the risk which the user faces.

Another important provision of these regulations can be found in Regulation 5 which states that all PPE provided to an employee should be compatible even if multiple pieces are to be worn or used at once. For example, if you work in a factory requiring eye protection and a dust mask to be worn but whenever you put your goggles on the mask didn’t fit properly – then they wouldn’t be compatible.

It may have become clear by now that these regulations deal with the everyday issues of PPE in quite some detail but possibly one of the most important regulations is Regulation 7 which provides that employers have an obligation to make sure that all PPE provided to their employees is kept in good condition and is well maintained. This means that if your PPE needs fixing or cleaning in order to keep you best protected the employer must take the appropriate action, even if that action means simply providing you with new equipment.