Safety Engineering

Dr. Ramakrishna Bag

Dept of Civil Engineering
NIT Rourkela
Personal protective equipment (PPE)
 Personal protective equipment (PPE)
Personal protective equipment (PPE) refers to protective clothing, helmets,
goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the worker's
body from injury.
The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, electrical,
heat, chemicals, biohazards, and airborne particulate matter.
The purpose of personal protective equipment is to reduce employee exposure
to hazards when engineering and administrative controls are not feasible or
effective to reduce these risks to acceptable levels. PPE is needed when there
are hazards present.
 Various types of PPE

Head Protection

Protecting employees from potential head injuries is a

key element of any safety program. A head injury can
impair an employee for life or it can be fatal. Wearing a
safety helmet or hardhat is one of the easiest ways to
protect an employees head from injury. Hard hats can
protect employees from impact and penetration
hazards as well as from electrical shock and burn
hazards.
 Employers must ensure that their employees wear head protection if
any of the following apply:

Objects might fall from above and strike them on the head
There may be chances of collision against fixed objects, such as
exposed pipes or beams
There is a possibility of accidental head contact with electrical
Hazards.
 Some examples of occupations in which employees should be required to
wear head protection include
Construction workers
Carpenters
Electricians
Linemen
Plumbers
Pipefitters
Timber and log cutters
Welders and many more
Whenever there is a danger of objects falling from above, such as working
below others who are using tools or working under a conveyor belt, head
protection must be worn.
In general, protective helmets or hard hats should do
the following:
Resist penetration by objects
Absorb the shock of a blow
Be water-resistant and slow burning
Have clear instructions explaining proper
adjustment and
replacement of the suspension and headband
 Foot and Leg Protection
Employees who face possible foot or leg injuries from
falling or rolling objects or from crushing or
penetrating materials should wear protective
footwear.
Employees whose work involves exposure to hot
substances or corrosive or poisonous materials must
have protective gear to cover exposed body parts,
including legs and feet.
If an employees feet may be exposed to electrical
hazards, non-conductive footwear should be worn.
Under following situations an employee should wear foot
and/or leg protection:
Heavy objects such as barrels or tools might roll onto
or fall on the employees feet
Working with sharp objects such as nails or spikes
that could pierce the soles or uppers of ordinary
shoes
Exposure to molten metal that might splash on feet
or legs
Working on or around hot, wet or slippery surfaces
Working when electrical hazards are present
 Respirators
Respirators help the worker to breath in
contaminated air. There are two main types
of respirators. One type of respirator
functions by filtering out chemicals and
gases or airborne particles from the air
breathed by the user such as gas masks and
particulate respirators.
A second type of respirator protects users
by providing clean, respirable air from
another source.
 In work environments, respirators are
relied upon when adequate ventilation
is not available or other engineering
control systems are not feasible or
inadequate.
 Skin protection
Skin hazards, which lead to occupational skin
disease due to following reasons
1. Exposure to Chemical agents
2. Expose to extreme temperatures and
ultraviolet ray
3. Exposure to microorganisms.

Any form of PPE that acts as a barrier between

the skin and the agent of exposure can be
considered skin protection.
Because a lot of work is done with the
hands, gloves are an essential item in
providing skin protection.
Commonly used gloves as PPE
include rubber gloves, cut resistant
gloves, chainsaw gloves and heat-
resistant gloves.
For sports and other recreational
activities, many different gloves are
used.
 Other than gloves, any other article of clothing
or protection worn for a purpose to protect the
skin also known skin protection PPE.
Lab coats for example, are worn to protect
against potential splashes of chemicals.

Face shields serve to protect one's face from

potential impact hazards, chemical splashes or
possible infectious fluid.
 Eye protection
Eye injuries can happen through a variety of means.
Most eye injuries occur when solid particles such as
metal slices, wood chips, sand or cement chips get
into the eye.
Smaller smoke particles and broken glass particles
also account for particulate matter causing eye
injuries.
Chemical burns, biological agents and thermal
agents from sources such as welding torches
and UV light also contribute to occupational eye
injury.
 Safety glasses provide minimum protection from
external debris, and are recommended to provide side
protection via a wrap-around design or via side
shields.
Goggles provide better protection than safety glasses,
and are effective in preventing eye injury from
chemical splashes, impact, dusty environments and
welding.
It is recommended that goggles with high air flow to
be used, in order to prevent fogging.
 Face shields are a useful form of additional
protection to be worn over the standard
eyewear and provide protection from
impact, chemical hazards etc.
Full-face respirators are considered the best
form of eye protection when respiratory
protection is needed as well, but may be
less effective against potential impact
hazards to the eye.
Eye protection used for welding operations
is shaded to different degrees, depending
on the specific operation.
 Hearing protection
Industrial noise is often overlooked as an occupational
hazard, as it is not visible to the eye. Overall, about 22
millions workers in the United States are exposed to
potentially damaging noise levels each year. Occupational
hearing loss accounted for 14% of all occupational
illnesses.
Worker should not be exposed to more than 8 hours of 85
dB equivalent noise level in order to reduce occupational
noise-induced hearing loss.
PPE for hearing protection consists of earplugs and
earmuffs.
Proper use of PPE