Personal Protective Equipment at Work

Most industry workers will be aware of the term PPE, or Personal Protective Equipment. In many jobs PPE is required in order to keep workers safe and free from injury or harm. Without adequate PPE injuries are more likely to occur and this ultimately can cost a company a lot of money in dealing with personal injury claims. There is a duty on employers to keep employees reasonably safe and free from harm. One method of protecting employees from harm is providing them with adequate PPE.

PPE can be in many different forms from hard hats, steel toe cap boots, overalls, high-visibility vests, goggles, gloves, ear muffs etc. Each item of PPE is designed to protect employees from hazards in the workplace. Workers who use potentially dangerous chemicals as part of their job (such as employees of pharmaceutical companies) should be provided with adequate eye protection. Equally people who work in the steel industry should be provided with adequate hearing protection and people who work on building sites should be provided with hard hats, high visibility vests and potentially other protection such as hearing protection.

Employers are required by law to carry out risk assessments. This is in order to identify any potential hazards in the workplace. Say for example that one particular hazard that is found to exist is noise. Employers would then have to tackle the problem in order to keep employees safe. The first thing would be to tackle the problem at source; perhaps a particular machine is emitting the excessive noise. This machine could be replaced or removed if possible. If the problem cannot be rectified at source then PPE (i.e. hearing protection) should be provided to protect employees from the hazard. Therefore you will note that PPE is not actually the first choice. However it would always be prudent to provide PPE in addition to taking other measures.

If the problem or hazard cannot be rectified at source then adequate PPE should be provided. Sometimes a particular job is noisy and not much can be done to reduce that noise. In this case hearing protection would be essential to prevent workers from developing noise induced hearing loss. In terms of hearing protection, this does not remove the noise all together. Hearing protection is not designed to make employees hear nothing. It is however designed to reduce the noise going into the ear. This is sufficient to reduce the noise to a safer level and keep employees safe.

It is often the case that PPE can run out and not get replaced. In addition we have come across situations whereby PPE is not adequate due to its condition and effectiveness. In this scenario workers are likely to sustain injury and a compensation claim could be made.

If you have been injured and it was not your fault, you may be entitled to make a claim for compensation. Do not hesitate to contact The Injury Lawyers today on 0800 634 75 75.