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Conducting A Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Hazard Assessment

Jeffrey R. Sotek, PE, CSP, CIH

Course Outline

In this three hour course, which provides an overview of basic hazards encountered in the workplace, students will learn how to assess workplace hazard that cause injuries and select PPE when engineering controls or work practice controls are not enough. The concepts and principles contained in OSHA 3151 will help further an understanding of OSHA's Hazard Assessment and PPE standards for general industry.

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will:

Intended Audience

This course is intended for safety engineers, environmental engineers and EHS professionsals.


Benefit to Attendees

Attendees of this course will be familiar with OSHA's Hazard Assessment and PPE requirements; understand how to conduct a basic hazard assessment of a workplace; and be familiar with types of PPE and how to select them.


Course Introduction

Most employees in a general industry setting use personal Protective Equipment (PPE), such as gloves or safety glasses regularly. However, it is important to remember that OSHA prefers that engineering and work practice controls be used because PPE does not remove the hazard and the responsibility for protection is placed on the user. When engineering or workplace controls are not feasible or enough, OSHA states that employers must provide their employees with PPE. As such, the understanding of workplace hazards, how to assess hazards and how to select proper PPE to minimize the hazard is paramount to keeping employees safe. In addition to explaining OSHA's Hazard Assessment and PPE requirements, OSHA Publication 3151, Assessing the Need for Personal Protective Equipment: A Guide for Small Business Employers explains how to conduct a basic PPE Hazard Assesssment and assess the various hazards (eye/face, head, hand / body, foot and leg) that could be encountered in a workplace, summarizes the types of PPE available, and provides information on maintaining PPE and training employees. The information contained in the OSHA 3151 is not only essential to environmental and safety engineers, but also valuable to all EHS professionals, and general industry employees. This principles of this course can also be applied to evaluating hazards encountered during our private lives.


Course Content

Hazards exist in every workplace and PPE is often used to protect workers against hazardous exposures. According to OSHA, incident data indicate that a significant portion of all work related injuries and fatalities involve workers being struck in the eyes, head, face, hand, and or feet by foreign objects. One study cited by OSHA indicated that 320,000 hand and finger injuries, 70,000 eye injuries, 70,000 head and face injuries, and 110,000 foot and toe injuries in 1987. With good reason, OSHA requires the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) to reduce employee exposure to hazards when engineering and administrative controls are not feasible or effective in reducing these exposure to acceptable levels. Employers are required to complete a hazard assessment of their workplace and determine if PPE should be used to protect their workers.

In this lesson, you will be directed to the OSHA's website to study Assessing the Need for Personal Protective Equipment: A Guide for Small Business Employers - OSHA 3151 (2003 edition, 46 pages, PDF file format), which provides a guide to employers and employees to assist them in conducting a basic hazard assessment of a workplace, understand the uses of PPE, select appropriate types of PPE for a variety of situations, and understand what kind of training is need for proper care and use of PPE. The concepts and principles contained in OSHA 3151 will help further an understanding of OSHA's PPE standards for general industry. This technical document is in the public domain and may be downloaded or printed free of charge.

Assessing the Need for Personal Protective Equipment: A Guide for Small Business Employers - OSHA 3151 (2003 edition, 46 pages, PDF file format)

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader.


Course Summary

The use of PPE is an important part of every safety and health program, but employers and employees must know how to assess the hazards they encounter and properly select PPE first. Through this online course, licensed professionals and EHS professionals can learn to identify and minimize workplace hazards, as well as, select proper PPE for a variety of situations.


Related Links

For additional information related to this subject, please visit the following websites or web pages:

OSHA's Health and Safety Topic - PPE
http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/personalprotectiveequipment/index.html


Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

Take a Quiz

DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.