Member Article

The repercussions of bad PPE - for you and your business

As an employer, it is your duty to ensure the safety of those who work for you and the one significant element of this is to provide them with the correct PPE - Personal Protective Equipment - required for their job role. So, what does PPE involve?

PPE is considered the ‘last line of defence’ for those working in hazardous industries. This means protection for workers who are dealing with issues such as extreme heat or cold, corrosive materials, contaminated air and the potential of falling debris.

As well as PPE, businesses should also be implementing thorough health and safety policies that ensure staff understand the implications of poor PPE use in the workplace. Keeping a workforce safe is a give and take relationship; each side must do their part.

Jeremy Luker, Technical Product Specialist for PPE expert Safeaid, gave his thoughts on the issue of poor quality PPE. He said: “Many businesses believe that there is only one level of PPE, and are content with the first products offered them without reviewing their own needs - and [what the PPE is being used for.]

“By purchasing poor PPE, a company can be given improvement notices by main contractors, work can be delayed by operatives underperforming due to discomfort, teams can be denied access to site if their PPE is in poor condition, and there is a greater risk of operatives being unsafe if their PPE does not conform.

“Purchasing the correct PPE in the first place will mean each garment will last longer. Engineers take care of high quality PPE, they actually wear it because it’s comfortable – so they are protected all the time,” Jeremy added.

As Jeremy confirmed, bad PPE can have serious knock on effects, for you, your business and your workforce. Most of the time the main reason for businesses choosing bad PPE is down to cost savings. High quality safety wear is expensive, but there is good reason for this as only the highest quality materials are used with the most rigorous of testing.

Luker added: “Savings can be made by purchasing appropriate quality PPE. It may be that by buying better quality products a lower cost in use can be achieved.”

Whether your employees work with live railway lines or on hectic construction sites, they deserve to be protected while on the job, so attempting to save money on PPE and opting for the cheapest solution is not the best of ideas.

So what are the repercussions of bad PPE? And how can cutting back on quality affect you and your business?

More injuries in the workplace

Your assigned first aider is going to be busy if you don’t implement the correct quality of PPE in your workplace. The HSE has the stats on this issue as well, with fatal injuries to workers usually being the case of: falls from height, being struck by a moving object or being hit by a vehicle.

While some of these are human error, the fatal implications can be reduced if the correct PPE is worn – a fall from a height can be counteracted with the correct harnessing equipment, a hard hat could save the life of someone hit by a moving object, etc.

It’s also important, no matter what industry you work in, that you have strict health and safety policies in place, as well as the correct PPE, to avoid unnecessary accidents occurring. Farmworkers, for instance, should be instructed to always turn machines off before checking them and that more than one person should be working in an area at one time to ensure that should an accident occur they can be treated quickly.

Most people working in agriculture will know the story of Sampson Parker, a farmer from South Carolina whose arm became trapped in a mechanical picker resulting in him using a three-inch pocket knife to hack it off to release himself. He’s become a warning of what not to do if your machine jams.

“I left the tractor running, and I walked round the back of the corn picker. There was a corn stalk stuck and without thinking I reached my arm in the corn picker, reached hold of the corn stalk and pulled down and the corn stalk wouldn’t come out.” Parker said in an interview with the BBC. “And then I pushed up and the rollers that take the shucks off the corn grabbed my hand.

“My hand was stuck. Blood started coming down my arm and chunks of meat and everything and I couldn’t believe what had just happened. And I knew I was in trouble but I had to block the pain out of my brain.”

Parker managed to use a pin to jam the chain working the machine, but this caused sparks to fly out that caught the corn stalks and started a blaze. His arm was still stuck in the machine and no matter what he did he could not pull it out.

He managed to snap the bone, then ran to his truck and drove to the nearest road where he was picked up and rushed to hospital. While his injury wasn’t necessarily due to poor PPE, it does emphasise the importance of businesses and sole traders having strong health and safety policies in place to avoid such dangerous injuries and accidents occurring.

Higher number of fatalities

When it comes to dangerous professions in the UK, those in roles in construction and farming are at the highest risk when they turn up for a day of work. This might surprise some, who might have initially suggested the police force or fire service. In the police force the numbers are high, with 117 officers killed in the line of duty in 2014, while in the fire service over a 27 year period there were 66 deaths.

However, according to HSE statistics, in 2014/15 alone, there were 27 fatal injuries in agriculture and 43 in the construction industry, and many of these will have been caused by poor PPE or workers not abiding by essential health and safety protocol. Fatalities while on the job are the most serious potential repercussion that follows poor PPE.

Loss of productivity and reputability

In 2014/15 around 2.1 million working days were lost due to injuries, slips and trips. The loss of productivity for a business could have serious repercussions, as work cannot be carried out in time for customers, which could potentially lead to them taking their business elsewhere.

Jeremy Luker recommends that when purchasing PPE, businesses first consider the tasks being performed and that they then purchase the correct safety wear for these: “It is often more beneficial to spend time looking at tasks performed by their operatives and purchasing PPE that is more suitable to their requirements.”

He also noted the importance of wearing high standard PPE, in terms of brand reputability. Worn, dirty or PPE that doesn’t appear to be of industry standard will not create a great impression with clients: “Engineers wearing the PPE are representing their employers at all time, as the logos are always printed on the vests – so how they look always has an impact on how professional the company looks.

By buying a cheaper product, an image of low quality is projected to the contractor’s clients, and this may affect their future workflow, if the impression is given that they accept low quality.“

Expensive fines

Companies found liable for a worker’s injuries can face fines of hundreds of thousands of pounds. For smaller businesses, this could potentially cause a business to collapse. In fact, new court guidance could see businesses who do not comply with health and safety laws facing penalties of over £10 million.

Earlier this year, a building products manufacturer was fined when an agency worker was exposed to cement slurry and suffered extreme chemical burns. The HSE investigation discovered that the correct PPE was not in place and fined the company a staggering £12,000. Ensure your first port of call is high quality PPE before sending workers out there and avoid the costly repercussions.

A disgruntled workforce

Jeremy from Safeaid also noted that poor PPE can have negative effects on your workforce and their impression of the business: “[You could get] lots of complaints from [your] work force, [plus a] negative feeling with the PPE [they use], which will then affect their attitude.”

He also noted that employers who want to make PPE savings can still do so while maintaining a budget should be teaching staff the importance of their safety wear and how to maintain it. He suggested that you can still abide by industry regulations and save money: “by [offering] more training or tool box talks, to teach users how to look after, care for and wash PPE.”

This should prolong the life of PPE, keep employees informed and happy and ensure your workforce is protected while out completing jobs.

It’s important to remember these repercussions when filling out that new order for PPE, buy from a reputable source and investigate the quality before committing. Your staff are your most important asset - ensure their safety and you ensure the reputability and profitability of your contracting business.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jade Tolley .