Personal protective equipment supervisors

Wear all personal protection equipment (PPE) required by your organization and ask your supervisor if you are not sure. 

The use of personal protective equipment is considered an important element of safety management. The top management and supervisors at the workplace should make it a habit to preach on this aspect periodically without fail, till it becomes a habit of the workers. 

Use personal protective equipment-wear mbber insulated gloves if you liandle electrictil equipiuent. You may also need insulated clotliing, such as rubber-soled shoes or boots-espccially if it s wet. Check with your supervisor about wliat PPE you need for your specific job. Never wear metal jewelry tliat could turn you into a conductor. 

For line supervisors and employees covering cleaning and preparation, escape routes, training, monitoring, personal protective equipment, communication devices, emergency planning. 

For supervisors. How to motivate workers to use the proper personal protective equipment. Part of 15-volume series, "Supervisors Development Program."... 

One of the most common ways people understand safety is through personal protective equipment (PPE). PPE is so dominant a feature of our industry that it even makes a key contribution to the social construction of the construction worker - the hard hat and yellow vest assigning identity and associated status, easily recognisable by the rest of the world. On sites, shared understandings between the workforce enable PPE to communicate even more harnesses for scaffolders and roofers, orange vests for banksmen, blue or black hard hats for foremen and supervisors. It is also by its very nature highly visible PPE is meant to be seen. 

Do supervisors provide sufficient training on the proper selection and use of personal protective equipment ... 

Unfortunately, there are some chemical operatives who are misguided enough to think that their workmates would consider it unmanly, or even cowardly, to wear the full personal protective equipment for a hazardous operation. For the same reasons they may not report unsafe acts and conditions to their supervisor. It is regrettable, but often true, that only after a serious accident has occurred do supervisors receive a host of complaints about unsafe conditions and suggestions for improvements. Like the car driver who only becomes... 

Fourth, the benchmarking process requires a considerable amount of time from when the decision is made to benchmark to when measurable results are realized. As with any safety program activity designed to improve performance, the results of the performance may not be evident for some time. In the case of measuring activities designed to increase the workers use of personal protective equipment, results may be evident in a relatively short period of time following the implementation of the program. Supervisors can go out to the production areas and observe worker performance. However, in the case where the activity is supposed to reduce the number of recordable injuries, the lag time may be a year before the decrease in cases can be substantiated. 

Can hourly employees describe how management officials are involved in safety and health activities Do hourly employees perceive that managers and supervisors follow safety and health rules and work practices, such as wearing appropriate personal protective equipment ... 

When employees are found not wearing required personal protective equipment or not following safe work practices, have any of them said that managers or supervisors also did not follow these rules ... 

This regulation requires that all permit-required spaces be identified, evaluated, and controlled. Procedures for entry must exist. Appropriate equipment and training for authorized entrants must be provided. Entry supervisors and attendants must be trained and present, and a written/signed entry permit should exist prior to entry. Trained and available rescue personnel shall (over one-half of the deaths in confined spaces are rescuers) be available. The space must have posted warning signs and barriers erected, and personal protective equipment and rescue equipment must be provided. 

The prevention and control of hazards can be accomplished in many ways. The primary way is through the reporting of hazards by employees and the correction of hazards by supervisors or other company qualified personnel. Second, employers can use preventive maintenance programs, special emphasis programs, training, workplace audits, engineering controls, administrative controls, and, as a last resort, personal protective equipment. 

The use of PPE should be considered in conjunction with other control efforts, or when no other method or practice is available. The supervisor may examine the equipment to make sure that it is in good condition. In addition, the supervisor should see if employees are wearing the required personal protective equipment and if the equipment is being used properly [2]. For example, employees may place disposable hearing protection only partway into their ears and leave most of the plug protruding. 

Report any defective tools or equipment to your supervisor. Properly maintain and be responsible for all personal protective equipment. 

It is important to note that appropriate personal protective equipment should be made available to visitors and other members of the public when visiting workplaces where hazardous substances are being used. It is also important to stress that managers and supervisors must lead by example, particularly if there is a legal requirement to wear particular personal protective equipment. Refusals by employees to wear mandatory personal protective equipment must lead to some form of disciplinary action. 

Some safety professionals take it upon themselves to give direct instructions to employees. I have known safety practitioners who do inspections and actually give direct orders to workers concerning the wearing of personal protective equipment. In some instances, employees are told by safety staff to clean up their workplace because of poor housekeeping. Employees are often instructed to carry out tasks differently by the safety department. This is line management s responsibility and these instructions should come from direct supervisors not the safety department. 

The advantage of the ABSS format is that it uses each supervisor s experience and areas of responsibilities to build safety-related information for discussion with employees. ABSS provides a method that allows supervision to go beyond potential and visible issues such as personal protective equipment (PPE). When fully implemented, supervisors will be able to develop their own area-specific topics to which their employees can relate. The key is that the supervisor is not alone, as each topic is developed with guidance from the safety manager or other resources. 

A safety tour is an unscheduled examination of a work area undertaken by a selected group of staff, including the manager with direct responsibility for that area, members of a health and safety committee, supervisors, trade union safety representatives and selected operators. A safety tour can examine predetermined health and safety aspects, such as housekeeping levels, standards of machinery safety, the use of personal protective equipment and the operation of established safe systems of work. Safety tours should be related to and reinforce decisions made by local management or by the health and safety committee. For maximum effectiveness, it is essential that action following a safety tour is taken immediately. 

Each affected supervisor and all affected craft labor shall be informed about the task hazard analysis and required to participate in the process. Participation shall include discussion on accomplishing the task step by step with appropriate work activities, communication and personal protective equipment. 

You may also wish to tour work areas and observe on-the-job safety. Use your experience to evaluate employees use of personal protective equipment, housekeeping, and general safety. If you are unfamiliar with the work area, you may want to tour the area with an experienced employee or supervisor and ask them to identify practices that are safe or unsafe and where injuries have occurred in the past. 

Erectors and their supervisors must be appropriately trained in relation to the type of structure being erected. Those wearing or using personal protective equipment require training before doing so. 

An evaluation of these points will enable the laboratory supervisor to determine the need for personal protective equipment. In addition, the following precautions must be observed for selecting the proper equipment after need for it has been identified through the evaluation process described above ... 

Front-line supervisors should set the tone for safety, lead by example, ensure that workers are properly trained and qualified to perform their work, and provide the proper tools, personal protective equipment (PPE), planning, and so on to ensure that the work is done safely and properly. Front-line supervisors have a difficult and important job. If we relate back to our discussion of the Hawthorne Effect, supervisors need to be treated as important team members also. They interface between the team members who are getting the work done and the management team. This situation can be difficult. Front-line supervisors typically wear many hats. They must manage the job from a viewpoint of the superintendent, yet they must deal with the workers on a personal level on a constant basis. The supervisor might be expected to be part of all of the following job functions ... 

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