If you’re working with hazardous chemicals, the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) must be provided to control the risk of chemical exposure. To help you choose the most suitable PPE, we’ll be highlighting 3 essential considerations to include in your risk assessment. But first, let’s take a look at PPE for handling chemicals – what it is and why it’s essential for the health and safety of workers.
REMEMBER: No single combination of PPE is capable of completely protecting people from physical contact with all types of chemicals. Always check the properties of chemical resistant clothing and consider how much of a substance will be used and the duration of the exposure.
What is Chemical PPE?
Chemical personal protective equipment (PPE) is the protective clothing, accessories and equipment used to shield staff from the hazards associated with chemical exposure. Items such as protective clothing, eye protection, chemical resistant gloves, PVC or rubber boots, breathing apparatus and respirators are some commonly used PPE products.
Your personal protective equipment will be dictated by the safety data sheet for each hazardous chemical product that you have onsite. In addition to this, you can check with the appropriate Australian Standard to determine the correct PPE for your class of dangerous goods or hazardous chemicals.
Understanding how to locate, put on and take off personal protective equipment (PPE) is a crucial safety consideration for all people who work with hazardous substances. Therefore, it’s important that inductions and training are implemented to ensure staff know how to protect themselves from chemical exposure through the correct use of PPE.
PPE as a Chemical Control Measure
PPE can greatly reduce the possibility of people being injured or becoming ill at work, but we have to emphasise that it should never be used as the sole means of controlling a chemical hazard.
As a safety control measure, PPE is the least preferred option in the Hierarchy of Control. The Hierarchy requires a step-by-step approach to controlling chemical risks, with elimination, substitution, engineering controls and administrative controls as the top 4 steps in the process.
Personal protective equipment is the least effective control, as it only works when it’s used properly. Therefore, the effectiveness of PPE relies almost exclusively on human behaviour.
Personal protective equipment won’t protect staff from chemical exposure when:
- Items don’t fit a worker properly (worker loses their PPE and wears their co-worker’s equipment).
- Workers don’t use it at all (it’s bulky and uncomfortable, it gets lost or damaged).
- It’s used incorrectly (workers take off their PPE too soon because they mistakenly think the area is safe).
- PPE is unsuitable for the required job task (PPE was selected based on the SDS and no risk assessment was conducted).
- Workers and contractors aren’t thoroughly trained or properly supervised.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you provide enough supervision (or spot checks) even after the job task is finished. You want to make sure that workers are cleaning and storing their PPE correctly.
Types of Personal Protective Equipment PPE For Hazardous Chemicals
PPE should be carefully selected after a risk assessment is carried out on the chemical hazards while following the recommendations in the safety data sheets (SDS).
PPE used for protection against chemical hazards includes:
Complete Coverage PPE
PPE designed to completely separate the human body from hazardous chemicals and provides protection for the skin, eye and mucous membrane, as well as the respiratory system.
Examples of complete coverage PPE are:
- Air-supplied respiratory equipment including SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus)
- Fully encapsulated chemical protection suits
- Chemical resistant inner and outer gloves
- Chemical resistant steel capped boots with shank (worn over or under chemical suit, depending on design)
Chemical Resistant Clothing
- Chemical resistant clothing and devices that protect the skin, face, eyes, and body from chemical splashes and spills.
- Respiratory devices
- Eye guards, glasses, goggles, visas, and other face shields
- Coveralls, long-sleeved jackets
- Hooded two-piece chemical splash suits
- Disposable coveralls, hoods, and aprons
- Gloves, gauntlets and sleeving
- Boots
Chemical resistant clothing can include respiratory devices, boots and gloves.
Basic Coverage PPE
For hygiene purposes and protection against minor irritations and infection. This type of PPE is not suitable protection for skin or respiratory hazards.
- Protective coveralls
- Plastic aprons
- Regular safety boots
- Cotton gloves
- Cloth or mesh face masks
IMPORTANT: When choosing chemical resistant clothing and equipment always check the specifications to make sure the PPE is suitable for the chemicals you are using eg, some chemical resistant gloves are incompatible with solvents.
Selecting PPE For Your Workers
A chemical’s safety data sheet will have a list of recommended PPE, but you should always carry out your own risk assessment to decide on the most suitable equipment and clothing to protect your workers. To make your decision there are three essential factors to consider: the chemical being used; the task being performed; and the people working with the chemicals. We’ll look at all three below.
1. Chemical Being Used
Your first priority is to consider the chemical, it’s form (liquid, solid, gas) and hazard class.
Read the SDS closely to determine:
- How can the chemical enter the body (inhaled, absorbed by the skin, ingested)
- Each hazard class and statement (highly toxic, corrosive, carcinogenic)
- The chemicals toxicity and concentration
- Acute health effects that could impair a worker and render them unfit to carry out a routine job task (dizziness, fatigue, nausea)
- Chronic health effects like allergies or cancer that could develop after long term exposure
- Hazards to specific areas of the body (skin, respiratory system)
- If the chemical is an asphyxiant and capable of creating an oxygen deficient atmosphere
- How it affects the eyes and soft tissue
- Whether the substance has an airborne exposure standard
Each of these factors will help you determine whether workers are likely to need respiratory protection, chemical resistant clothing, or eye guards. You’ll also be determining if other control measures will need to be introduced to the workplace.
REMEMBER: Your safety data sheet will specifically detail the required PPE for chemicals that you carry in Section 7: Handling and Storage.
2. Job Task Being Performed
After identifying the chemical and assessing the hazardous properties, next you’ll take a close look at the actual job task.
You should be considering:
- How many chemicals hazards will the worker be exposed to?
- Does the task require more than one item of PPE at the same time? Some PPE can interfere with another piece of equipment eg, goggles and respirators.
- Is it a simple/quick task, or something complex? Sometimes workers take shortcuts if they are about to perform a 1-2 minute job and it will take them 10 minutes to suit up in an elaborate set of PPE.
- How long will the worker be exposed to the substance? Some chemicals will penetrate PPE faster than others.
3. Workers Exposed to the Chemicals
When deciding on the suitability of PPE, it’s critical to also consider the people who’ll actually be wearing it. When PPE doesn’t fit or is uncomfortable to wear, the worker can lose concentration (or worse) not use it at all.
Here are some key questions to ask:
- Does the PPE enable maximum dexterity and clear vision for all job tasks?
- Will the worker’s size and build interfere with the functionality of the PPE?
- Is the worker medically fit enough to cope with the extra load imposed by the PPE?
- Can the worker communicate relatively normally while wearing the PPE?
- Do they have any personal features or facial hair that could interfere with proper fit of the PPE?
- Will the worker’s body temperature increase substantially causing them to become psychologically stressed or physically exhausted?
PPE Training, Supervision and Storage
Personal protective equipment won’t safeguard your workers if they don’t know where the PPE is stored, how to use it properly — or how it should be maintained.
Therefore, one of the most fundamental steps in PPE training is to ensure that your staff know how to:
- Locate the correct PPE.
- Put it on properly.
- Take it off safely.
- What to do with it once it's been used.
You should also take into consideration the level of supervision they will receive when using personal protective equipment during their hazardous chemical handling duties.
A dedicated storage cabinet that keeps PPE safe from dust, liquids, vermin, and theft is also an important factor in workplace safety.
Maintaining your PPE is part of your WHS obligations to ensure workplace health and safety.
PPE for Hazardous Chemicals
Now you have a better understanding of how to use PPE as a chemical hazard control measure, we suggest downloading our free eBook How To Manage The Risk Of Hazardous Chemicals In The Workplace. You’ll learn how to assess the suitability of your PPE and any additional control measures that may be required. We also introduce our full risk management methodology IDENTIFY - ASSESS - CONTROL - SUSTAIN designed to get your workplace 100% chemical safety compliant.
