How Fit is Your Kit? Helping you make the right choices when supplying PPE and Workwear

Section Three Section Four Section Five For the purpose of this guide, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is defined as: all equipment (including clothing affording protection against the weather) which is intended to be worn or held by a person at work and which protects him against one or more risks to his health or safety, and any addition or accessory designed to meet that objective. - Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992

Written by: Sangeeta Aeri Technical Manager Supertouch® The role of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) should never be underestimated within the professional environment. However, with so many options available and a variety of suppliers to choose from, it can be difficult to know where to begin when choosing the right kit for the job. For starters, when it comes to specifying and purchasing PPE products, the phrase ‘one size fits all’ simply doesn’t apply. Every industry, from construction to the food sector, has specific requirements and guidelines to adhere to that will ultimately influence...

Section One Fit Kit =Fit Employees Explaining the key to improving safety performance within a business The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 are a set of guidelines created under the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974 (HSWA), which came into force in Great Britain on 1 January 1993. Within them, they place a duty of care on every employer to provide suitable PPE to employees who may be placed at risk to their health or safety while at work. According to Regulation 4, PPE kit is only considered 'suitable' or fit if: • It is appropriate for the risk or risks involved...

Written by: Ross Oates NHBC Health & Safety Award Winner Site safety is one of, if not the, most important aspects of working within the commercial and industrial sector. PPE is intrinsic to safe working practice on site – yet it can often be misused, misunderstood or missed-off completely. Ross Oates, Project Manager for housebuilder St Joseph (Berkeley Group) explains more. From caps and coats through to goggles and gloves, PPE is an ever-present in some form or other on every working site in the UK. While you won’t find many people blatantly disregarding a site’s PPE requirements, in many...

Section Two How Fit is your Footwear? Suitable footwear for each industry, standards and best practice for maintenance

Section Two How Fit is your Footwear? Despite being one of the most preventable workplace accidents, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that slips and trips are the most common cause of injuries to employees. Research also conducted by the HSE found that these slips and trips cost UK businesses a staggering £500m a year in injury claims, investigation time, production delays and plant damage. But what role does PPE play in this? While there are many factors at play when it comes to these kinds of accidents, such as visible cabling and obstructions, one key consideration is footwear....

Section TwoHow Fit is your Footwear? Proper PPE Pairing Typically, the right footwear selection can be made by asking the same four questions regardless of industry, see the below infographic. Using the answers to these questions, you can start to understand the requirements of your footwear, then it’s a case of finding the right match. Four key questions when selecting safety footwear.. 1. What is the common surface/terrain? Safety boots and shoes feature different tread patterns and sole compounds specifically to achieve grip in a variety of environments from smooth concrete to uneven mud....

11 Food and Beverage The risk of slips in a food preparation and processing environment is increased, given that it involves a number of liquids and oils. Having an adequate pair of slip resistant shoes here is therefore crucial in case of greasy surfaces. Supertouch®’s own Food-X slip on footwear has been designed with these needs in mind. With an oil-resistant anti-static sole and a water-resistant outsole, they keep the user protected and comfortable at all times. You can also wipe them clean after use and they feature an anti-bacterial lining for odour control and hygiene. Supertouch® Food-X...

Section TwoHow Fit is your Footwear? Setting the Standard Once the shoe has been appropriately matched to the environment, checking the relevant protection standards and overall fit for the wearer should be the next consideration. To ensure only the fittest footwear is selected, there are a variety of safety classifications and codes to consider during the specification process. BS EN ISO 20345:2011 is the current standard for safety footwear (used for general purpose) across Europe (EN) and sets out a series of tests for safety footwear which must be passed to claim protection against a specific...

Section Two How Fit is your Footwear? Maintenance Tips for Total Footwear Fitness According to a survey by Supertouch®, 49% of workers only look to replace boots once they are ‘worn out’. Worryingly, this could be dramatically reducing the protective qualities of the safety shoes, making them unfit for use and increasing the risk of injury. We therefore recommend replacing boots if there is any damage to toe caps, fastening systems or once the sole grips have worn away by 50%. In order to ensure they are in tip-top condition during this time, it’s important to also store and maintain them correctly....

Section Three How Fit is your Safety Eyewear? Exploring how to avoid eye injuries in the workplace, eyewear suggestions based on use and safety eyewear standards

Section Three How Fit is your Safety Eyewear? Workplace eye injuries can be life changing, yet despite safety eyewear being one of the of the most important pieces of PPE, a ‘one size fits all’ approach is often wrongly taken. Eyewear is compulsory for a wide-range of sectors, but poorly specified glasses can cause the user discomfort and ultimately lead to non-compliance. For any business, the objective should be to achieve 100 per cent conformity and in order to achieve this the closer you specify to the individual’s needs, the greater the results. Common Eyewear Complaints and How to Avoid...