PPE | 17
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Challenges in specification and selection When you specify and select Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the emergency services it can be complicated and challenging. The range of hazards faced are much wider, and often less well quantified, than for most industrial situations. Emergency services usually use a head-to-toe ensemble of PPE (clothing, gloves, boots, helmets etc) including respiratory protective equipment (RPE – respirator, breathing apparatus). All the individual items need to provide a similar level of protection as they all face the same hazards at the same time. Risk assessment Your first step is a thorough risk assessment. This must address the full range of mechanical, thermal, chemical and ergonomic properties that the ensemble needs to have. You must also consider the intended work, so that the ensemble is suitable for the tasks involved. You will need to know: the level of real-world protection provided; the ergonomic requirements of the work (movements needed, lifting etc); the physiological burden from the ensemble on the wearer (fatigue, heat stress etc); the effect of wearing the ensemble on safe behaviour (reduced mobility, impaired vision etc); and the availability of data that will allow you to assess these factors. You may have conflicting priorities or incompatible performance requirements. Often a compromise must be reached between practicality and protection and, as a consequence, the work that can be undertaken using an ensemble may need to be limited. Choosing different ensembles for different applications may result in logistical and cost challenges. You may find standards for individual items helpful. They may give comparable data for several items (eg material tear strength or chemical permeation resistance), but interpreting these data for real-world use is not always easy.
Some information may be difficult to find or just not there, and filling the gaps can be expensive and time-consuming. At the Health and Safety Laboratory we don’t just test the protection and performance of PPE and ensembles, we also assess their performance specifications and interpret standards data. Examples include illicit drug laboratory entries and urban search and rescue tasks.
Finally, the responsibility for ensuring that PPE and ensembles are adequate and suitable is not new, and lies firmly with employers. Our work has highlighted areas where standards don’t offer enough information to select with confidence, including: protective performance of complete garments (rather than material samples); protective performance of ensembles (rather than individual items); retention of hazardous substances on materials and garments (during work and after cleaning); ability to safely and cleanly remove contaminated equipment; ability to decontaminate reusable garments and ensembles; and ergonomic and physiological aspects of garment and ensemble use. Many of these areas are not included in standards for individual items and, currently, few standards consider ensembles at all.
Practical performance testing One of the key challenges in future standards development will be to consider protection in a more holistic way, recognising that protection from ensembles is not simply the sum of the individual items. One aspect of this may be formalised practical performance testing. BS 8469:2007 ‘PPE for firefighters – Assessment of ergonomic performance and compatibility’ includes methods to assess the ergonomic and physiological effects of ensembles. When this is combined with assessments of protection and decontamination performance in practical conditions, it should provide confidence that ensembles are both adequate and suitable. An international standard for wildland firefighters’ ensembles that uses this approach is nearing completion.
Who pays? Finally, the responsibility for ensuring that PPE and ensembles are adequate and suitable is not new, and lies firmly with employers. How this is achieved, and who ultimately pays for the associated work, will be, however, a significant issue. There will be negotiations, and potentially partnerships, between employers and their suppliers. www.hsl.gov.uk
About the authors
Author: Nick Vaughan, PPE Technical Lead, PPE Team, Health and Safety Laboratory.
Author: Duncan Webb, Senior PPE Specialist, PPE Team, Health and Safety Laboratory.
Emergency Services Times May 2010
Nick Vaughan (PPE Technical Lead) and Duncan Webb (Senior PPE Specialist) work in HSL's PPE team. They have assessed and developed the specifications for, and tested the protective and practical performance of, emergency services PPE and ensembles. They are both members of British, European and International Standards Committees for PPE, have contributed to the development and revision of HSE guidance on RPE and PPE, and provide related training to HSE inspectors and others.