3.7 - Use of Personal Safety Devices

Abstract

Personal protection is required when a person cannot avoid the risk of being exposed to a contaminant which has the potential to cause harm. As contaminants encompass physical hazards such as noise and radiation and biological hazards such as micro-organisms, as well as the more familiar chemical hazards, which include dust, solvent vapors and gases, the range of protective clothing and equipment available is extremely wide. Making the workplace safe has for long been considered preferable to relying upon personal protection, and indeed personal protection is often referred to as the last line of defense. Thus, whenever possible, the preferred option is to engineer control of contaminants at source. For a variety of reasons, personal protective clothing and equipment is widely used and therefore, it is essential to allocate both competent people and adequate resources to ensure that they are being used effectively. Wherever personal protective clothing or equipment is used, a comprehensive personal protection program should be in force. The chapter explains the elements vital to the success of personal protection programs or schemes as well as the use of particular types of protective equipment and clothing.