Ch.

12
Personal Protection and First Aid

By:
Dr. Ibrahim Almuhaidib
Outlines
• Protection Need Assessment
• PPE Training
• Hearing Protection
• Ear and Face Protection
• Respiratory Protection
• Confined Space Entry
• Head Protection
• First Aid
Objectives
• By the end of this chapter, the student should
be able to:
– Identify personal protective equipment (PPE)
assessment
– Understand PPE training tools
– Learn about: Hearing Protection, Ear and Face
Protection, Respiratory Protection, Head
Protection, and First Aid.
Protection Need Assessment
• The 1st federal standards for PPE emphasized
– Design and performance

• OSHA (mid-1990)
– The use of PPE in general
• such as when such equipment should be used
– The requirement for the employer
• to conduct a hazard assessment to determine whether PPE is needed for
various jobs found within the plant

• OSHA (2007)
• The employer was responsible for providing all necessary PPE free
of charge to its employees. This was to reduce misuse or nonuse of
PPE by increasing availability of PPE meeting all applicable
standards
• Exemptions: certain safety shoes, prescription safety eyewear, and logging
boots.
 Protection Need Assessment
• OSHA regulations require employers to protect
their employees from workplace hazards such
as machines and work procedures that can
cause injury.
• Employers must institute all feasible engineering
and work practice controls to eliminate and
reduce hazards before using PPE to protect
against hazards.
 Engineering Controls
• If . . .
– You can physically change the machine or work
environment to prevent employee exposure to the
potential hazard,
• Then . . .
– You have eliminated the hazard with an engineering
control.

• Examples . . .
– Ventilation system
– Substitution with less harmful material
– Change the process
Checklist for Establishing a PPE Program
• Identify steps taken to assess potential
hazards in every employee’s workspace and in
workplace operating procedures.
• Identify appropriate PPE selection criteria.
• Identify how you will train employees on the
use of PPE.
Checklist for Establishing a PPE Program
• What PPE is necessary
• When PPE is necessary
• How to properly inspect PPE for wear or damage
• How to properly put on and adjust the fit of PPE
• How to properly take off PPE
• The limitations of the PPE
• How to properly care for and store PPE.
• Identify how you will assess employee understanding of PPE
training.
• Identify how you will enforce proper PPE use.
• Identify how you will provide for any required medical
examinations.
• Identify how and when to evaluate the PPE program.
 PPE Training
• General PPE standard:
– If PPE is needed, then the employees must be trained to use it properly

• Employees need to know

– when PPE is necessary
– What kinds of PPE are required
– How to wear it effectively
– The limitations of the PPE he/she is using (including its useful life under proper
care and maintenance).

• If either workplaces changes or the PPE changes,

– the employer must take a responsible position and retrain the employee if
necessary.

• Both the initial training and the retraining must be documented with
certificate that identifies the name of employees trained, the dates, and
the subject for which the employee is certified.
 Types of PPE
• Hearing Protection
• Eye and Face protection
• Respiratory Protection
• Head Protection
• Safety shoes
• Protective Clothing and Skin Hazards
 PPE assessment
Activities/task Hazard Body part PPE
Sample task: Burn, flying particles, Eyes, respiratory, Welding
Welding inhalation, awkward trunk, arms, hands helmet/lens,
posture. respirator (fume),
welding vest,
welding gloves
 Hearing Protection
• Cotton balls
• Swedish wool
• Earplugs
• Molded ear caps
• Earmuffs
• Helmets:
– Considered in the case of the most severe noise-exposure
problem
– Helmets are capable not only of sealing the ear from noise, but
also of shielding the skull bone structure from sound vibration
– The most expensive form of hearing protection
• OSHA requires employers to implement a hearing
conservation program when noise exposure is at or above
85 decibels averaged over 8 working hours, or an 8-hour
time-weighted average (TWA).
Hearing Protection
 Eye and Face Protection
• Glasses
– Table 12.1: Appropriate PPE for various hazards
– Industrial safety lenses (compared to street safety
lenses) must pass much more severe tests to meet
ANSI standards.
– Contact lenses are not considered as adequate
PPE.
Eye and Face Protection
Eye and Face Protection
Eye and Face Protection
Eye and Face Protection
 Respiratory Protection
• IDL(immediately dangerous to life):
– If a single acute exposure is expected to result in
death, the atmosphere is said to be IDL(immediately
dangerous to life).
• IDLH(immediately dangerous to life or Health):
– If a single acute exposure is expected to result in
irreversible damage to health, the atmosphere is said
to be IDLH.

• The employer should take a responsible position

and ensure that these employee use their
respiratory equipment properly (as with general
PPE).
IDLH Value
 Air purifying devices vs. atmosphere
supplying devices
• Air-purifying Respirators have filters, cartridges, or
canisters that remove contaminants from the air by
passing the ambient air through the air-purifying
element before it reaches the user.
• Atmosphere-supplying Respirators supply clean air
directly to the user from a source other than the air
surrounding the user.
– Air purifying devices: dust mask, quarter mask, half
mask, full-face mask, gas mask, and mouthpiece
respirator
– Atmosphere supplying respirators: air line respirator,
hose mask, and self-contained breathing apparatus.
 Quarter Mask Vs. Half Mask
• The quarter mask looks very much like a half mask
except that the chin does not go inside the mask. The
quarter mask is better than the dust mask, but it, too,
is generally approved for toxic dusts no more toxic
than lead.

• The half mask fits underneath the chin and extends to

the bridge of the nose. This mask must have four
suspension points, two on each side of the mask,
connected to rubber or elastic about the head.
Quarter Mask Vs. Half Mask
Air Purifying Devices
Atmosphere Supplying Respirators

Airline Respirator

Self Contained Breath Apparatus

 Respiratory Protection
• Airline respirator
– Continuous flow mode: the airline respirator receives fresh air
forcefully by the apparatus.
– Demand flow mode:
• Air does not flow until a valve open
• This cause a negative pressure created when the user inhales; exhalation
closes the valve in turn
• The advantage is use of less air
• A disadvantage is the need for a tight-fitting face piece.
– Pressure demand mode: has features of both the continuous flow and
demand flow modes.
 Respiratory Protection
• Self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA)
– is a device worn by rescue workers, firefighters, and others to provide
breathable air in an IDLH atmosphere.
– Open circuit
• the exhaled breath is discharged to the atmosphere
– Closed circuit
• recycle the exhaled breath, restoring oxygen levels
• smaller and lighter than open circuit
• useful when requiring extended periods of time
• hazard with the chemical oxygen-generating unit (Potassium Superoxide)

• Potassium superoxide
– Used as a O2 generator in re-breathers, spacecraft, submarines and
spacesuit life support systems.
– If flooding water  explosion or
– Provide oxygen-rich atmosphere  fire hazard.
– Potassium superoxide must kept sealed from moisture.
SCBA – Open Circuit
SCBA – Closed Circuit
 Respiratory Protection
• Respirator plan
• Respirator selection
• Personnel screening
• Fit testing
• System and Maintenance
Confined Space Entry
 Confined Space Entry
• Identifying the hazard
– The worker breathes inside the space
– Mechanical entrapment: Ever-tightening constricting space that may
trap the worker
– Engulfment: sand, grain, and other granular dry solid material
– Simple oxygen deficiency (less than 19.5% oxygen in breathing air) is
the biggest killer in confined spaces.
– Also, oxygen enrichment (greater than 23.5% oxygen in breathing air)
can present problem as missile silos.
– Highly toxic atmospheres, or escape impairment from mildly toxic but
temporarily paralyzing atmospheres.
• Isolation of the space
– A double block and bleed procedure (Figure 12.9)
– Blanking or blinding: complete cover
– One of the most hazardous operations in confined space is welding.
Identification of hazards
 Confined Space Entry
• The scenario described in Case Study 12.1 is not
unusual.
 Respirator Plan
• Adequate planning for respirators and their
appropriate use, maintenance, and the
training of employees who will wear them is
an important OSHA requirement. Expert
consultants can help in this situation, but the
safety and health manager should assure that
OSHA required ingredients for respirator plans
be included.
 Respirator Plan
• 1. Procedures for respirator SELECTION

• 2. Medical evaluations for respirator users—PERSONNEL SCREENING

• 3. Respirator FIT TESTING

• 4. Procedures for proper USE of respirators

• 5. Procedures for respirator MAINTENANCE

• 6. Provision of adequate SUPPLIED BREATHING AIR for air supplying respirators

• 7. Employee TRAINING for when respirators are needed

• 8. Employee TRAINING for proper wearing, use, and maintenance of respirators

• 9. Procedures for continuing EVALUATION of the respirator program

 Head Protection
• Hard hat
– A genuine hazard exist or Just symbol in work
place?
– Once it has been decided that a hard-hat rule is
necessary, the safety and health manager should
take steps to ensure its implementation.
• Decision  training  follow-up checks  corrective
steps (for individual violations of the rule)
 Safety Shoes
• OSHA Standard 1910.136 requires that all
protective footwear be compliant with the
ANSI Z41-1991 Standard.
– Protective footwear should be used “where there
is a danger of foot injuries due to falling or rolling
objects, or objects piercing the sole, and … feet
are exposed to electrical hazards.”
 First Aid
• The safety and health manager will frequently
be responsible for the first-aid station and may
supervise a plant nurse.
• The first-aid station is often used for:
– medical tests
– screening examinations
– monitoring of acute and chronic effects of health
hazards.
• The plant nurse or other first-aid personnel may
be responsible for performing some of the
recordkeeping and reporting functions
 First Aid
• One adequately trained first-aid person is
required in the absence of an infirmary, clinic, or
hospital “in near proximity” to the workplace.

• If the workplace is not itself a hospital or clinic

or is not directly adjacent to one, the safety and
health manager is advised to be sure that at
least one, preferably more than one, employee
is adequately trained in first aid.
 First Aid
• A first-aid kit or first-aid supplies should be on
hand, and the safety and health manager should
seek a physician’s advice regarding the selection
of these materials.

• Another first-aid consideration is the provision

of emergency showers and emergency eyewash
stations on job sites where injurious corrosive
material exposure is a possibility.