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| Personal Protective Equipment Using
safety equipment can greatly reduce or eliminate accidents.
By Jeff DeVries
Safety in the workplace is as important as doing quality work efficiently, but is often
overlooked.And being careful isn't always enough.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) must be provided to employees and used by them
whenever
it can protect an employee from a hazard or a potential illness or injury. The
Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA) has required the use of PPE for eye, face, respiratory
and
hand protection; occupational head and foot protection; and electrical protective devices.
Selection of the proper PPE for a job is important. Employees must understand the
equipment's
purposes and limitations. The equipment cannot be altered or removed when it has been
determined to be necessary to protect workers from hazardous conditions.
Eyes and Face
Protective eye and face equipment is required where cleaning/maintenance workers need
protection from items such as flying particles, liquid chemicals, acids or caustic
liquids, chemical
gases or vapors, or potentially hazardous, light radiation.
Side protection of the eyes is required any time there is a potential hazard from flying
objects.
Employees who wear prescription lenses must be provided with protective eyewear that
incorporates the prescription into the eyewear, or that does not interfere with the
wearing of
normal corrective lenses.
Eye and face protection must:
* Provide adequate protection and reasonable comfort when worn
* Fit snugly and not unduly interfere with movement
* Be durable and capable of being disinfected and easily cleaned
* Be marked with the name of the manufacturer and be in good repair.
Respirators
Each employer must have a written respiratory protection plan whenever respiratory
protection is
required and used. Respiratory protection is quite important because inhalation is the
primary
route of exposure to chemical toxins. Respirators consist of a face-piece connected to an
air
source or an air-purifying device.
Respirators with an air source are called atmosphere-supplying respirators. Air-purifying
respirators do not have a separate air source, but they use ambient air purified through a
filtering
element prior to inhalation. Persons wearing respirators must be trained to handle them
properly
and must receive a fit test, to test its face-piece-to-face seal.
OSHA requires the use of hard hats in the case of impact and penetration from falling
objects and
from limited electrical shock and burns. Long hair should be protected -- against catching
on
moving machinery, being subjected to sparks, or snagging on objects -- by being compacted
into
a hard hat, tied out of the way or caught in a hair net.
Protective footwear must be worn by cleaning/maintenance employees who handle solid,
weighty
objects on a routine basis or where there is a high risk of such an object falling from a
height. For
employees working with hazardous chemicals, OSHA requires boots made of neoprene, PVC,
butyl rubber, or some other chemical-resistant material.
While wearing chemical-resistant boots, the pant legs should be outside and over the boots
to
prevent liquids from entering. Pullover rubber boots should be used by employees working
for long
periods in water, mud or wet concrete.
Gloves and GFCI
Anyone in the cleaning field should wear protective gloves when their hands are in danger
of
becoming injured. Chemical-protective gloves should be worn when working with chemicals
which
could be absorbed through (or could damage) exposed skin. Also, canvas leather or cotton
gloves
are recommended for general maintenance work and handling of materials that could cut,
splinter
or otherwise damage hands.
To protect your employees from electric shock, ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCI)
should be
connected to all electrical equipment. These devices constantly monitor the electric
current. As
long as the amount of current returning from the appliance is equal to the amount that
went in, the
GFCI does nothing.
If there is less current coming back, such as when the current is taking another path, the
GFCI
cuts off the flow of electricity and shuts off the equipment. A GFCI protects by limiting
the
duration of a shock, not by cutting down its intensity. But because the GFCI works so
fast, the
shock will be over before serious injury can occur to a normally healthy person.
Before doing work that requires the use of PPE, employees must be trained to know when the
equipment is necessary, what type is necessary, how to wear it, what its limitations are,
and its
proper care, maintenance, useful life and disposal.
Employers are required to certify in writing that training has been carried out, and that
employees
who have received training have demonstrated their understanding and can completely use
the
equipment for which they have received training.
You and your employees should discuss "on-the-job" safety items that could be
implemented.
Look for obvious items such as the wearing of knee pads for crew members who work on their
knees frequently, proper labeling of cleaning chemicals, and use of GFCIs with any
electrical
equipment.
No combination of protective equipment and clothing is capable of protection against all
hazards.
Safety equipment should be selected based on the hazards present and used in conjunction
with engineering controls and work practices. Equipment and clothing should be selected that
providesan adequate level of protection for the situation.
Employers should know the OSHA requirements pertaining to the cleaning industry and should
conduct training sessions with their employees as mandated by OSHA laws.
Jeff DeVries is technical director of Marblelife, Inc., Canton, MI.
Copyright© 1995 National Trade Publications, Inc. |
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