The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations

A worker s body may need protection against heat or cold, bad weather, chemical or metal splash, impact or penetration and contaminated dust. Alternatively, there may be a risk of the worker s own clothes causing contamination of the product, as in the food industry. Appropriate clothing will be recommended in the company s health and safety policy. Ordinary working clothes and clothing provided for food hygiene purposes are not included in the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations. 

The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations, SI 1992 No. 2966, HMSO, 1992. 

General requirements to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) are contained in the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992. However, there are specific requirements, which take precedence over these general requirements, which are contained in regulations dealing with particular hazards, namely ... 

All personal protective equipment, except respiratory protection equipment (which is covered by specific Regulations, such as COSHH, lead, etc) is controlled by its own set of regulations - the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations. A detailed summary of these Regulations is given in Chapter 20 and needs to be studied in detail with this section. The principal requirements of these regulations are as follows ... 

A short guide to the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992, INDG174, 1997, HSE Books ISBN 0 7176 0889 1... 

The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 require employers and the self-employed to provide suitable protective equipment to operators wherever the risks to their health cannot be controll by other means. PPE should only be used as a last resort and only if engineering control measures are insufficiently effective. PPE should ... 

Specific legislation on noise in all places of work, including construction, is contained in the Noise at Work Regulations 1989. The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 require PPE to be selected according to criteria established in the risk assessment. Equipment provided must conform to EC standards. 

The general duties sections of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 require a safe place of work to be provided together with safe systems of work, and these may involve use of PPE. General requirements for provision, use, maintenance and storage of PPE are contained in the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992. Specific Acts, Regulations and Orders also contain requirements for PPE, and should be consulted for particular applications. 

There are certain situations in which you will need to wear personal protective equipment (PPE).The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations details the different types of PPE that are available and states when they should be worn. Your employer has to ensure appropriate PPE is available for certain tasks (e.g. gloves when working with solvents, face masks when cutting bricks, safety goggles when using a circular saw). 

The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 Guidance on the Regulations provides practical advice on how to comply with health and safety law related to PPE and on the selection of PPE. Visit the HSE website, www.hse.gov.uk, for further information. 

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