PPE Discipline

A torn glove still on someone’s hand. A cartridge nobody can date. Bare fingers touching the outside of dirty gloves as they come off. None of that is the wrong PPE. All of it is PPE failing.

Putting PPE on is only the beginning. It has to stay intact, get changed on time, and come off without carrying the hazard to your hands, face, food, or personal items.

A glove protects you only while the barrier holds. Once it tears, punctures, or gets damaged, it stops being protection and starts being a way to spread whatever you are handling onto tools, controls, and every shared surface you touch. Stop the task and replace it. If one glove is damaged, replace the pair. And don’t fish a fresh pair out of the dispenser with the dirty glove. You can contaminate the new pair and everything left in the box.

Respirator cartridges don’t last forever, and your nose is not a gauge. Smell is not a dependable way to tell whether a vapor cartridge is still protecting you. Change cartridges on your site’s written change schedule and the manufacturer’s guidance. A schedule only works if somebody tracks it. If yours runs on time or hours of use, write the date you opened the cartridge on it before it goes on the mask.

Taking PPE off matters as much as putting it on. The outside of the glove is where the hazard lives, and it can land on bare skin on the way off. Gloves don’t replace handwashing. Wash your hands after you take your PPE off and before you eat, drink, touch your face, or handle personal items.

PPE can be the right equipment and still fail. It fails when damaged PPE stays in use, cartridges stay in too long, or the hazard rides out of the task on your hands.

Stop the unsafe task. Then check whether the standard was trained and understood. Training is showing, doing, evaluating and retraining. If nobody ever made you take gloves off clean and checked that you did it right, you were not trained. You were told. Once the standard is trained, hold it. In Motivational A**hole I wrote about the brick plant rule: no PPE at clock-in is late. That sounds petty until you remember what the standard is protecting. If you are not willing to protect your system, why have it?

Try this

Before your next task that calls for PPE, check three things. Is the barrier intact? Is the cartridge inside your site’s change schedule? Do you know how you will take it off without touching the outside?

PPE is a barrier. It only works while you keep it one.

Stay safe,

Marc Bradburry II

Big Bearded Ginger