Ergonomics, protective equipment

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Potential ergonomic hazards should be considered when selecting PPE. 

Dolez PI and Vu-KhanhT (2009), Recent developments and needs in materials used for personal protective equipment and their testing. International lournal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics (JOSE), 15(4), pp. lAl-hbl. 

Abeyskera, J.D., Shahnavaz, H., 1988. Ergonomics aspects of personal protective equipment its use in industrially developing countries. Journal of Human Ergology 17, 67—79. 

Brower, D., Goede, H., Tijssen, S., 2003. Introduction of ergonomics and comfort in the selection of personal protective equipment (PPE) concepts for a new approach. In Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium of ISS A Research Section, May 19—21,2003, Athens, Greece, 7 p. 

Corporations are feeing stricter regulations regarding the workplace environment. Safety and injury prevention are key to keeping productivity optimal. In a process called ergonomic assessment, equipment and workstations are biomechanicaUy assessed, and adjustments are made that will limit acute or chronic injuries. Employees also receive instruction on the proper procedures to foUow, such as lifting techniques. Industry procedures need to be in place and diligently followed to protect both employees and the company. 

Any new or modified requirements governing those changes (i.e., personal protective equipment (PPE), chemicals, facility/area layout, evacuation routes, ergonomic related issues, machine guarding, etc. 

Not until automatic tilt tables were provided, along with other steps to redesign the work, were the ergonomic stresses—and the workers compensation cases—reduced. Training and personal protective equipment were not proper solutions for this situation, and the temporary fixes cost far more than would have been expended if the issues were addressed in the original design processes. 

The structured approach (considering the task, the load, the working environment and the individual capability) is recommended in the guidance. The steps taken will involve ergonomics, changing the load, mechanical assistance, task layout, work routines, personal protective equipment, team working and training. 

Moving beyond personal protective equipment, chemists routinely use safety shields (Figure 7.2.1.2) for some reactions. While it may seem odd to run a reaction with the expectation of an explosion, it is simply true that some reactions are more prone to explosions than others, even under controlled circumstances. Furthermore, even experienced chemists have had reactions go out of control unexpectedly. Sometimes such incidents are later understood and sometimes they are not. Safety-conscious chemists develop a good sense of how hazardous a reaction might be. A basic safety principle is to overprotect rather than to underestimate a hazard. While using shields might be ergonomically cumbersome at times, the extra protection they offer is worth the small effort. 

Thus, this type of service requires not only a good space for machines, for operation and maneuvering and parking of vehicles, an efficient infrastructure of electrical and hydraulic installations, and care with the chemical products used but, also, a type of special care to the worker that performs services of car wash, because they will be exposed to risks such as accident, ergonomic, physicd and chemical and should, in cases of lack of risks control on sources, at least make use of certain types of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). 

The most effective safety celebration I ever observed featured a series of brief presentations by teams of hourly workers. These employees shared numerous safety ideas they had put in place to prevent workplace injuries. Some showed off new personal protective equipment, some discussed their procedures for encouraging near-hit analyses and corrective actions, and others displayed graphs of data obtained from audits of behaviors and environmental conditions. One team presented an ergonomic analysis and redesign of a work station. 

Environmental conditions time and achievement pressure, neglect of protective equipment against falls poor condition and nonuse of protection equipment poor recognition and underestimation of hazards. Special ergonomic suggestions are made for scaffoldings, ladders, stairways, safety harnesses, and safety nets (Vogt Kirchner 1985). 

Personal protective equipment (PPE) exists in two basic forms splash protection and gas-tight suits. Such suits can be considered to offer Level A, B or C protection (described in more detail in Table 5.8). PPE must enable effective work to continue without creating further safety issues such as heat stress. A difficult balance has to be met between protection and ergonomics in order to allow members of the emergency services to carry out their role with minimum impedance. 

Institute courses cover diverse safety and health topics including electrical hazards, machine guarding, personal protective equipment, ventilation, and ergonomics. The facility includes classrooms, laboratories, a library, and an audiovisual unit. The laboratories contain various demonstrations and equipment, such as power presses, woodworking and welding shops, a complete industrial ventilation unit, and a sound demonstration laboratory. More than 57 courses dealing with subjects such as safety and health in the construction industry and methods of compliance with OSHA standards are available for personnel in the private sector. 

The primary considerations with respeci to safety are the following (1) identifying 2-3 levels of relief to protect the equipment from over-pressurizing (2) identifying the classification of the room and the code of the equipment needed based on the solvent systems used in the process (3) the ergonomics of solids handling associated with... 

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