Did you know that around 90 percent of eye injuries in everyday work could be avoided by wearing appropriate eye protection?*
No? This makes it all the more important to address the topic of using personal protective equipment (PPE).
Both the basis and the guarantor for safe and "healthy" workplaces in everyday restoration work is a well thought-out range of work safety articles. In terms of risk assessment, which must be carried out for each workplace or for each activity, the so-called STOP principle must be applied first. This means that in order to reduce existing hazards, consideration is first given to how the exposure can be reduced by substitution (e. g. use of other work processes, substances), by technical solutions (e. g. structural separation, extraction) and by organisational measures (e. g. time limits, training). Only then should the residual hazards be further minimised by the use of PPE.
Safety at work
– Personal Protective Equipment
»Personal protective equipment, commonly referred to as "PPE", is equipment worn to minimize exposure to hazards that cause serious workplace injuries and illnesses. These injuries and illnesses may result from contact with chemical, radiological, physical, electrical, mechanical, or other workplace hazards.«*²
Respiratory Protection
In order to be able to breathe easy at work, personal protective equipment includes respirators that prevent dangerous pollutants, e. g. gases and solvent vapours as well as fine dusts or mould spores, from entering the body through the respiratory tract. They also prevent oxygen deficiency.
Depending on the area of application, exposure to pollutants and the duration of use or wearing, different masks and filtering devices, with and without blower support, are necessary - these include:
- Breathing apparatus (masks, bonnets, respiratory protection helmets, respiratory protection suits)
- Filtering devices against particles, gases and vapours, including filtering half masks and filtering devices with blower support
- Isolation devices (hose devices, container devices with compressed air and oxygen circulation devices with compressed oxygen or chemical oxygen)
Eye Protection
The eye or even the face can be damaged by mechanical, optical, chemical or even thermal effects. Due to the very different requirements for eye and face protection, it is not always easy for the user to select the right equipment. In many cases, the coincidence of several hazards is to be expected. Depending on the application and the individual needs of the user (face shape, poor fit, impaired vision, etc.), the appropriate choice of eye protection is made - sensible choices are:
- Protective goggles (full-vision goggles, UV protective goggles)
- Visors
- Shields with and without neck protection
Hearing Protection
Hearing protection is used when working in high noise areas. In this case, speech and signal intelligibility must be maintained:
- Conventional and special capsule hearing protection
- Earplugs
Particularly with earplugs, it is important to ensure that they are correctly fitted and used to provide the specified level of protection.
In most cases, hearing protection can be combined with other PPE, e. g. when capsules are attached to the safety helmet. If the noise reduction provided by earplugs or capsules alone is not sufficient in workplaces with extremely high noise exposure, a combination of both may be necessary.
Capsules or earplugs?
Both types of hearing protection are basically equivalent in terms of noise reduction, i. e. there are earplugs and capsules with relatively high or low noise reduction. Capsules generally provide less noise reduction at low frequencies than earplugs. Whether to choose capsules or earplugs is therefore not based on noise reduction, but on the work situation and working environment .*³
Head Protection
The generic term head protection covers the entire product range of safety helmets, bump caps, hair protection bonnets and hair protection nets. A safety helmet provides head protection from physical impacts, such as falling objects, as well as from swinging or flying objects. When wearing head protection, it is essential to ensure that it fits the user perfectly or, if necessary, is customised accordingly.
Skin Protection
The skin is exposed to a variety of stresses during work. For skin protection (hand and arm protection), various protective gloves are available depending on the application, e. g. against chemical, physical (mechanical, thermal, electrical) and biological hazards. The materials used are mainly plastics (elastomers, thermoplastics, laminates), woven fabrics (also coated) and leather. In addition, skin protection also includes UV protection products as well as complementary skin care and skin cleansing products.
The following applies to all protective equipment:
As soon as the protective equipment is damaged or otherwise defective, the protective effect is no longer adequate.
In this case, the affected pieces of equipment must be replaced with new ones so that the full protection of the PPE is permanently guaranteed.
Protection of art objects and cultural goods
Personal protective equipment primarily aims to ensure human health and safety. Nevertheless, the protection of art objects and cultural heritage should also be kept in mind when restoring them, for example, to prevent further damage caused by hand perspiration.
At Deffner & Johann you will also find, among other things, materials in the area of art handling which, taking into account current guidelines, facilitate the handling of art objects.
A safe working environtment
Clean breathing air is an indispensable resource
Extraction systems with adapted filter systems are a technical solution for significantly reducing hazardous pollutants at the workplace, such as particles, vapours and gases, mould spores or micro-organisms.
In close collaboration with conservation specialists, Fuchs Umwelttechnik® has developed compact, mobile and stationary extraction and filter units especially for the restoration sector, both for single and multiple workplaces. The professional units meet the highest industrial standards and offer the appropriate technology for all types of problems to remove hazardous air pollutants safely.
The extraction system will be configured individually according to your needs and the area of application. The system can be flexibly upgraded and converted for different applications any time; therefore the investment once made can be used long-term.
Please remember to replace the filters in time. This is the only way to ensure a consistently good performance of your extraction system and to protect your health or that of your employees permanently.
Responsible protection of people and environtment
The handling and storage of hazardous substances, such as flammable, corrosive or toxic liquids, is also common practice in ateliers and workshops. To ensure the safety of employees and objects, the storage of hazardous substances in safety cabinets is required. Here, the regulations of the Hazardous Substances Ordinance and the TRGS 510 must be adhered to.
With the high-quality products from asecos®, the world's leading manufacturer of safety cabinets, Deffner & Johann offers a comprehensive range for the storage and disposal of hazardous substances, as well as the safe handling in everyday work.
Deffner & Johann supports a safe and healthy work environment
We hope to support you and your employees as well as possible in your restoration work routines with our wide range of occupational safety products. At Deffner & Johann you will receive high-quality, functional safety products you can rely at any time. The entire range of our products can be found in the Deffner & Johann webshop.
Please contact us, if you have any questions or would like detailed advice and we will find the right solution for you.
Stay healthy and well protected.
Quellenangaben:
* https://www.domeba.de/blog/unterweisungen/psa-unterweisung/
*² https://www.osha.gov/personal-protective-equipment
*³ https://www.osha.gov/personal-protective-equipment