What Are The Standards In Personal Protection Equipment?

Personal Protection Equipment provides workers protection from the dangers they face in the line of work. It is mandated by law that every employer should provide these devices to their employees if their job involves risk of injury. Within PPE there are several categories:

• Skin protection
• Head protection
• Leg protection
• Eye and face protection
• Hearing protection
• Respiratory protection

Standards in Personal Protection Equipment

Standards in personal protection equipment are there to ensure that the equipment passes several tests before making it into market. In India, govt insists that PPE should meet certain criteria regarding quality. They are:

• Providing full protection: The device in question should provide complete protection from the danger.
• The product should be made of material that can withstand the danger.

PPE should be selected after considering the severity of the danger involved in the job. The nature of the work and the type of harmful substance should be thoroughly considered before selecting the product.

Categories

PPE can be divided into two categories

1. Non-respiratory: Non-respiratory PPE include safety helmets, safety jackets, safety shoes, safety hand gloves and safety spectacles. These products protect different parts of the human body.
2. Respiratory: These include PPE used for protecting someone from inhaling contaminated air. Respiratory masks are included here.

Standards in Head Protection

 

Head protection is the backbone of PPE. There are four classes of safety helmets.

• Class A: Helmets in this category do not provide much safety against electricity.
• Class B: Head protection equipment belonging to this class offer high voltage resistance.
• Class C: These helmets do not offer voltage protection.
• Class D: Protection in firefighting is limited.

Helmets used for scooter and bike riding are called crash helmets and their standards is IS 4151-1993, while the industrial safety helmets come under IS 2925-1984. Standard for firemen’s helmet is IS 2745-1983.
Safety shoes

Safety shoes are the next most important PPE. These protective shoes have steel reinforcement around the toe area, so that they provide protection against piercing and compression.

1. Standard for leather safety shoes and boots is IS: 1989 (Part-1 & 2)-1986. This protective gear should be ankle high. They also should have steel toe-cap.
2. Standard for leather boots for firemen is IS: 4128-1980.
3. Electrical Safety shoes: Though a standard for such safety shoes are being developed IS: 4770-1968 offers a standard for testing protective equipment for electrical work environments.

Body Protection

PPE under this category includes safety jacks and also complete head-to-toe protective suits. Such suits offer protection from a variety of dangers including exposure to harmful chemicals and radioactive materials.