PPEs are wearable tools and equipment to protect workers against safety or health risks in workplaces and hospitals. Their purpose is to prevent employees and medical workers from exposure to hazards when engineering and administrative controls are not feasible to reduce risks at acceptable levels. These possible dangers can be anything, from chemical spills to machine breaks and everything in between.
PPEs include protective helmets, eye protection, high-visibility clothing, safety harnesses, safety footwear, and sometimes, respiratory protective equipment. Let us check out some of the commonly used PPEs and their benefits.
Head Protection
A protective helmet is needed in workplaces with overhead hazards. It is designed to protect the wearer’s head against falling or flying objects that would impact or otherwise penetrate the worker. Also, workplaces generally provide PPE signages to alert any worker in the area that head protection must be used to avoid potential harm.
Some headgear is equipped with additional accessories, such as earmuffs and face shields. Use head protection that is well-fitted; too small or too large are inappropriate for usage.
Eye and Face Protection
Safety is essential if you are working with materials that are likely harmful to your eyes and face. This is the reason why eye and face protection should be used when working in the lab.
There are different kinds of goggles and glasses used to secure workers from various hazards. For example, safety glasses and goggles can protect you against potential impact. In contrast, goggles and face shields give the best protection against chemical splashback. Also, special safety glasses must be worn when working with lasers and UV rays since regular safety glasses cannot block them.
Eye and face protection tools are equally crucial as head protection equipment. In addition, metalwork, hot-work, and air-tool operations require this type of protection.
Hearing Protection
Laboratories, like industrial and physical testing laboratories, require the use of earplugs or earmuffs to protect their workers’ hearing in noisy conditions. However, this noise is often discounted as an occupational hazard since it is not visible to the naked eye.
Earplugs and earmuffs are the standard hearing protection equipment used in the lab. Earplugs are more helpful in reducing low-frequency noise, while earmuffs are more effective in reducing high-frequency noise.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) established occupational standards where employees should be only exposed to 85dBA for 8 hours to reduce occupational noise-induced hearing loss. In addition, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) made a sound level meter app that workers can download on iOS mobile devices. This tool is used to measure sound levels in the workplace. Moreover, it gives noise exposure parameters to help minimize noise-induced hearing loss.
Hand and Skin Protection
Skin diseases are the second most common type of occupational disease, such as contact skin dermatitis, skin cancers, and other skin injuries. This is the reason why gloves are necessary for lab and medical work.
Gloves are used to protect your hands since they do a lot of work handling chemicals, metal, glass, hot or cold materials, and slippery objects. Some examples of gloves include rubber gloves, chainsaw gloves, cut-resistant gloves, and heat-resistant gloves.
Respiratory Protection
Sometimes, there are things that you don’t see but can actually hurt you. This is a typical scenario in laboratories where toxic substances are present, so respiratory protection is essential on these sites.
Respiratory protection like respirators is devised to secure you from fumes, dust, paint spray, pesticides, and other air contaminants that could cause permanent lung impairment. These PPE tools are also being relied upon when there is an unavailability of adequate ventilation or other engineering control systems that are inadequate or not feasible for use.
GYMDA: Your Reliable PPE Manufacturer
GYMDA has been in the industry for three decades, providing medical product supplies and related PPE and medical OEMs to hospitals and labs, catering industry, and spas and salons. Our company continues to grow while we focus on what we have been working on for the past years. Here are GYMDA’s PPE bestsellers:
Disposable Nitrile Gloves
Our disposable nitrile examination gloves are packed 100 pieces in each box. They are powder-free hemp gloves and available in blue colors. But if you wish for other color variants, please tell us so for product customization.
Disposable Latex Gloves
Our disposable latex examination gloves are packed in 100 pieces per box. We added antioxidants to increase the shelf life of each latex glove. Also, our product model is powder-free glossy and no donning powder is used. They are available in pale yellow or other preferred customized colors per request.
Disposable Medical Mask
Each of our default packaging for our disposable medical mask contains 50 pieces of face masks in each box. This type is available in both white and blue color variants, valid for 2 years if not used.
Our disposable face masks are made of three layers. The first layer is made up of 100% non-woven polypropylene. The middle layer is a melt-blown filter. Lastly, the third layer is made again of 100% non-woven polypropylene.
KN95 Protective Mask
Our KN95 protective masks have a default packaging of 40 pieces per box and are available in blue and white colors. It is valid for 24 months if left unused.
Gymda’s KN95 protective masks are composed of 5 layers. The first layer is made of non-woven fabrics. Followed by a thermal bonded non-woven material. For the third and fourth layer, it has a melt-blown filter. Lastly, the fifth layer is made up of non-woven fabrics.
Conclusion
Using personal protective equipment and adequately wearing them is essential to prevent unnecessary harm in the lab. Conversely, misusing or choosing not to wear PPE is a health and safety risk that can actually take someone’s life.
Note that PPEs do not remove dangers, but they can protect an individual. Hence, you have to make sure that you adhere to the lab’s protocols by wearing protective gear and being vigilant to hazard signs. If your company or organization is seeking a reliable supplier of PPEs, check out Gymda at the website https://gymdappe.com/.
