Ihab Saad – Personal Protective Equipment PPE
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Music.
Welcome to another safety class, and today we're going to be
talking about personal protective equipment or PPE.
So how do we protect employees from workplace hazards? What are
the different methods that should be adopted to protect them from
any accidents or incidents? Employers must protect employees
from hazards such as fawning objects, harmful substances and
noise exposures that can cause injury.
The different methods to do that is, first of all, use all
feasible, feasible engineering and work practice controls to
eliminate and reduce hazards. So we're going to redesign our
process, the operation itself, trying to see if it can be done in
a different way that's going to be less hazardous to the employees.
And the second method is going to be to use the person protective
equipment. PPE, if the controls do not eliminate the hazards. So
if we've done our best, but still, the job is going to be hazardous,
like, for example, erecting steel for a steel structure. Of course,
people are going to be working at a higher altitude, and they do not
have any kind of protection. The operation cannot be
redesigned or can be arranged in a different way. Therefore we'll
have to rely on personal protective equipment to protect
them from falling in this case. Therefore PPE is going to be our
last level of control, not the first, but the last. The
engineering controls that we talked about can include something
like initial design specifications. We can see if we
can change the designs. For example, if there's a hazardous
material that they have to deal with, is there any other material
that's less hazardous or not hazardous at all, that can do the
same job? Substitute that less harmful, substitute with less
harmful material. If, again, that can be provided change the process
or enclose the process. For example, if it's going to be if
there's going to be some fumes, if they're going to be some sparks,
if they're going to be some debris, if we can enclose it by
putting some shields around the operation itself that can protect
the other employees on site or isolate the process. So all of
these are engineering controls that can be adopted in redesigning
the process itself to minimize the exposure of the employees.
So the work practice controls. If the employees can change the way
they do their jobs, and the exposure to the potential hazard
is removed, then the hazard can be eliminated with the work practice
control. Just to give you an example, when you are lifting the
heavy object, there's a proper way of lifting it, and there's the
wrong way of lifting it. So the proper way is to bend the knees
and to let the legs carry the load, rather than the back. The
improper way, or the incorrect way of doing it is to lock the knees
and put all the load on the back. So therefore, it's just to work
practice control without the provision of any personal
protective equipment or anything, just by teaching people how to do
the job in a more correct way that can reduce the amount of injuries.
So the responsibilities in this case are going to be dual
responsibilities. There are going to be some responsibilities on the
employer and some on the employee. For the employer, you have to
assess the workplace for hazards, determine exactly where the
hazards are. The employer has to provide the PPE that part of the
employer responsibility if the employee is going to be subject to
any of the job hazardous hazards, and there's a PPE that can protect
from these hazards. Is the employer's job to provide that PPE
and determine when to use. What are the conditions for using that
PPE and provide PPE training for employees and instruction in the
proper use of that PPE, again, something like a gas mask, for
example, or something like air supply, you have to train people
on how to use it, because, by default, they wouldn't know how to
use it without having that proper training.
On the other hand, the employees responsibilities are going to be
to use the PPE in accordance with training received and other
instructions, and to maintain that PPE and to keep it a good working
conditions through inspecting it daily and maintaining it in a
clean and reliable condition.
Some examples of PPE, personal protective equipment for the
different body parts, for example, for the eyes, we're going to have
the safety glasses, we're going to have the goggles. We're going to
have the welder's mask, for example, for the face. We're going
to have the face shield for the head. We're going to have the hard
hats for feet. We're going to have safety shoes or steel toe shoes
for the hands and arms. We might have different kinds of gloves,
depending on the operation, as we're going to see in a few
minutes, for body.
So it's going to cover the sides as well. It's used for moderate
impact from particles produced by jobs such as carpentry,
woodworking, grinding and scaling, so minor flying debris or sparks
or stuff like that. So it's not something major, something heavy.
The goggles, on the other hand, are going to protect the eyes and
area around the eyes from impact dust and splashes. So these are
going to be much more heavy duty, and some goggles can fit over
corrective lenses, as we just discussed in the previous slide.
If you're gone, if your work is going to involve working with
laser in a lab or something like that, then definitely we're going
to need some additional kind of protection. So we're going to have
laser safety goggles, which are, as you can see, darker in color
and more shaded to protect against the laser brilliance. And they
have the side protection as well, so either goggles or glasses.
So the laser safety goggles are another means of protecting from
laser rays, as we just mentioned,
face shields are the third way of protecting the eyes and the face
in general. They are going to cover the full face and protect
the full face accordingly. Protects face from dusts and
splashes or sprays of hazardous liquids does not protect from
impact hazards because, again, this is not designed to protect
from the impact of a heavy material or heavy tool. For
example, you can wear safety glasses or goggles underneath to
add additional protection for the eyes.
Welding shields are a very specific type of face shields.
They protect against, protect the eyes against burns from radiant
light. They protect the face and eyes from flying sparks, metal
spatter and slag chips produced during welding, brazing, soldering
and cutting, so they're gonna have a better impact resistance than
the other face shields, and they're going to protect from the
radiant light from these different operations.
Hearing protection. That's another
PPE kind of device that we're going to have to provide if the
employees are going to be exposed to an elevated noise level on a
regular basis and for a prolonged period of time. So when it's not
feasible to reduce the noise or its duration, use ear protective
devices. And ear protective devices must be fitted. They have
to fit properly to protect the eardrum and the hearing in
general. And here it shows, for example, some different noise
levels. Speaking voice would be anywhere between 60 and 70
decibels.
A bulldozer is going to be 85 decibels. For an insulated cab for
the operator who's working inside that insulated cab, a
welding machine is going to be anywhere between 85 and 90
grinder, 86 loader, backhoe in an insulated cab, little bit higher
than the bulldozer. 87 crane and insulated cab. 90 compactor, no
cab. 94 masonry saw, 95 quick cut saw, and you can see a jackhammer,
for example, is going to be 96 a pile driver, which is going to be
the loudest noise, is going to be 112
so you have to provide protection. It's recommended above 85 DC
bells. So for any kind of operation, basically above
speaking voice, you're going to need
hearing protection, because it's going to be an extended exposure,
and if it's going to be above 105 decibels, like a bulldozer with no
muscle, impact, trench, ear Arsing, gouging, Pile Driver, then
you have To provide double protection, which is about
anywhere above one five decibels.
So when must hearing protection be provided? First of all, after
implementing engineering and work practice controls, if we can
redesign the operation, if we can eliminate the source of that
noise, then we're going to do that first. If we cannot, because it's
part of the job, then we'll have to provide that PPE, when an
employee's noise exposure exceeds an eight hour time, weight
average, weighted average, with a sound level of 90 decibels.
Examples of hearing protectors, we're going to have these ear
plugs, different kinds of earplugs. These are molded
earplugs that can fit inside the ear and they can be shaped or the
ear muffs, which are going to be a little bit more comfortable and
more heavy duty that can provide better protection. So.
A foot protection here, for example, someone's working with
wood, or someone working with marble, or someone working with
tiles or whatever. That doesn't seem to be wood, it's probably
metal or something. So here we have the shields for the feet that
protect the feet from any falling objects
when must it? Must it be provided when any of these are present,
heavy objects such as barrels or tools that might roll onto or fall
on employers feet, sharp objects such as nails or spikes that might
pierce or any shoes, and these are quite abundant on construction
sites, molten metal that might splash on feet, hot or wet
surfaces and slippery surfaces, any one of these would require a
certain kind of foot protection.
So we have the safety shoes that are impact resistant. They have
impact resistant toes and heat resistant soles, which protect
against hot surfaces common in roofing and paving. For example,
some have metal insoles to protect against puncture wounds from
protruding nails, and they may be electrically conductive for use in
explosive atmospheres or non conductive to protect from
Workplace electrical hazards. So again, depending on the job,
you're going to find the proper
pair of shoes
for hand protection is mostly going to be gloves, and we're
going to have different types of gloves depending on the operation,
whether it's going to be cutting or chemicals or hot exposure, for
example. So when must hand protection be provided? When any
of these are present, burns, the probability of burns, bruises,
abrasions, cuts, punctures, fractures, amputations or chemical
exposures, any of these are going to require the use of gloves or
hand protection to be used.
So for example, here we have two different types of rubber gloves.
The first one is nitrile, which protects against solvents, harsh
chemicals, fats and petroleum products, and also provides
excellent resistance to cuts and abrasions. So that's the primary
use for the nitrile or nitrile gloves. The second type is butyl,
which provides the highest permeation resistance to gas or
water vapors. So if it's not going to have any harsh chemicals, then
we can use the butyl.
A third type is Kevlar. Kevlar is very abrasion, resists resisted
material. So kevra Kevlar protects against cuts, splashes and
abrasion. And finally, stainless steel mesh, something like this,
protects against cuts and lacerations. So here, this person
is wearing, on one hand, the Kevlar, because it's more
flexible, and a stainless steel mesh to protect against a cutting
surface, like an eye, for example.
And then we have the full body protection, as you can see here in
this slide. This is called the hazmat suit, which is a hazardous
material suit that's used on some operations where, here, for
example, they might be exposed to PCBs, which is a carcinogenic
material, or in some cases, asbestos or any other material
that can cause severe harm. So in environmental work, in general, a
full body protective suit might be used.
So the major causes of body injuries, intense heat, splashes
of hot metals and other hot liquids, impacts from tools,
machinery and materials, cuts, hazardous chemicals and radiation,
of course, radiation, that's a very unique type, and it's going
to require its own body suit.
So the body protection,
the criteria for selection is going to be to provide protective
clothing for parts of the body exposed to possible injury. The
types of body protections are going to include vests,
aprons, jackets, coveralls or full body suits.
Here are different examples.
So here we have the jacket, here we have the full body suit that
they even protect from radiation. And here we have the apron,
together with the gloves, of course,
and respiratory protection. There's, there are some written
standard operating procedures. So you have to have written standard
operating procedures for the proper selection use and care of
respirators, which type is going to be suitable for which job, how
is going to be used, how it's going to be maintained, when is it
going to be replaced or replenished? Possibly.
Of the employee.
Now to make sure that this breathing protection works
properly, we're going to have a qualitative fit pest, which is
going to be a chemical challenge. So to make sure that nothing is
penetrating through, so we're going to have some irritant smoke
or saccharine mist or bike tracks or banana oil. If the person can
smell that, can smell any of these, none of these, by the way,
are going to be too harmful to the person, even if they do penetrate
during that test. So the wearer is asked to move and speak during the
test to simulate the Fit during actual working conditions. If the
wearer detects the substance by irritation, smell or taste, then
obviously there's some leakage and the mask doesn't fit. It has to be
replaced.
The other one is going to be the quantitative Fit Test, which is an
assessment of the adequacy of respirator fit by numerically
measuring the amount of leakage into the respirator, because in
some cases, the gas might be odorless, it might be tasteless,
and still, it might be fatal. An example for that is carbon
monoxide, as we all know. So in this case, we need to know even if
a tiny amount escapes and leaks through the gas mask. In this
case, we need to know that and measure that amount.
So in summary, this is the conclusion of our lecture about
personal protective equipment. You might be exposed to additional
details through other lectures, like we have been, for example,
about fall protection, when we talked about the hardness and the
lanyard and so on. So employers must implement the PPE program,
where they first of all assess the workplace for hazards, identify
what these hazards are, use engineering and work practice
controls to eliminate or reduce the hazards before using PPE. So
that's going to be our first line of defense. Select appropriate PPE
to protect employees from hazards that cannot be eliminated, the
residual hazard then that we have to face, we're going to protect
against it, inform employees why the PPE is necessary, how and when
it must be worn. That's going to be done through different meetings
and different training. Train the employees on how to use and care
for their PPE, including how to recognize deterioration and
failure if it's not working or if it's not working adequately, it
has to be fixed, or it has to be discarded and replaced, and
require employees to wear selected PPE. So the issue of enforcement
of the use of PPE on construction sites is of extreme importance,
making sure that everyone's wearing a goggle or eye
protection, making sure everyone's wearing a hard hat if they're
exposed to falling objects, if their feet are going to be exposed
to hazardous material, then they have the proper footwear, and so
on and so forth. That's basically our presentation today about
personal protective equipment. I'll see you in another
construction safety class. You.