What is PPE?

PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) is clothing, gear, and anything else workers use or wear to diminish health and safety hazards.

Generally, PPE provides workers with an extra level of protection to help them complete their tasks in the workplace safely. PPE online training can help workers implement Personal Protective Equipment so it’s most valuable to their safety, health, and well-being.

PPE may include:

• Steel-toe safety boots and shoes
• High visibility clothing such as vests, jackets, and pants
• Gloves, knee pads, and elbow pads
• Hearing protection such as ear plugs and earmuffs
• Safety glasses, visors, and goggles
• Hard hats and helmets
• Harnesses and fall arrest gear
• Insulated, waterproof, and wind-resistant clothing
• Hats, sunscreen, and long sleeves
• Breathing apparatus such as face masks and respirators

Some kinds of PPE are discretionary, and workers can choose whether to utilise them or not. However, certain PPE is compulsory in certain workplaces and therefore must be applied to work on those sites.

Why use PPE?

PPE might come after elimination, substitution, engineering, and administrative controls in the hierarchy of risk controls, but it’s still vital. Without doubt, injuries and incidents in the workplace can have significant health and economic consequences for both individuals and organisations.

For instance, lost time or personnel, investigations and associated costs, and potential compensation and legal claims. Furthermore, there are also corporate manslaughter laws throughout the UK.

To explain, corporate manslaughter refers to instances of negligence resulting in a worker’s death. For example, if a worker is fatally electrocuted during electrical work because the risk of electrocution was not controlled. Such as electrical shock and arc flash PPE were not supplied, or safety systems were not ensured.

Organisations can face unlimited fines for corporate manslaughter. Furthermore, they may receive publicity orders that require them to publicise the details of the conviction.

Now, the economic factor can’t be overlooked. But obviously, the primary reason to provide PPE and PPE online training is the safety and well-being of workers.

PPE can minimise the impact of countless hazards and help protect workers from:

• Airborne particles and falling objects
• Splashes, drips, or contact with hazardous chemicals and substances
• Loud noises and potentially damaging light sources
• Vehicle and pedestrian collisions
• Lacerations, abrasions, and amputations from sharp edges, blades, and spikes
• Heat burns, cold burns, and corrosive materials
• Electrical sparks, burns, and shocks
• Slips and falls
• Breathing in contaminated air and dangerous particles

Providing and Using PPE

Organisations must supply their workers with the PPE required to safely carry out their duties. Unless, for instance, workers have already been supplied the appropriate PPE from their labour hire agency.

PPE provided to workers must be appropriate for the workplace, tasks, and associated hazards. It must be sanitary, in good working order, and replaced when required. Moreover, all items must fit properly, be relatively comfortable, and not adversely affect any medical sensitivities, such as skin allergies.

PPE also needs to be compatible with any other mandatory items. For example, it must be practical for a worker to wear both safety goggles and a respirator if required.

Surprisingly, some PPE can actually create new problems, such as reduced visibility or restricted mobility. In this situation, all reasonable measures to address those additional hazards must be taken.

In addition, organisations must offer maintenance and storage instructions, such as with PPE online training, for all items provided. Managers and supervisors must also make sure, so far as reasonably practicable, that their workers use the PPE supplied.

Workers using any PPE must:

• Use all PPE per instructions and training
• Comply with the use of mandatory PPE in all required areas
• Never intentionally misuse or damage PPE
• Consult a supervisor if PPE is uncomfortable, ill-fitting, or causes adverse reactions
• Inform a supervisor of any PPE damage, defect, or maintenance needs

Deliberately misusing, damaging, or refusing to wear PPE may be met with disciplinary action, and even dismissal in serious cases. Similarly, visitors, inspectors, and other outside personnel must obey the individual PPE constraints of any workplace they attend.

Visible signage should also be displayed to remind workers of what type of PPE must be worn in what areas.

Safety and PPE Online Training

PPE online training can be administered in many ways. However, perhaps one of the most effective approaches is with video eLearning. Live-action video eLearning is the perfect format for delivering PPE and safety training in the workplace.

Firstly, footage of real people using PPE in real workplaces can easily show the action that still-photographs can’t. Secondly, live action video instantly conveys the significance and genuineness of body language, where text, pictures, and animations often cannot.

Thirdly, real people, and accidents and injury scenes plainly demonstrate the consequences of taking shortcuts with workplace safety.

Learners both witness the potential ramifications of overlooking safety and PPE use, and more easily retain the training’s message. After all, video eLearning is about 83% more efficient than text-based training for a learner’s retention of information.

Now, real-life practical training is still important in a lot of situations and cannot be underestimated. But video eLearning is a proficient and effective way to build upon any necessary physical PPE training.