Posted: November 19th, 2022

Basic Workplace Safety and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Basic Workplace Safety and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Basic Workplace Safety and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Workplaces and workshops need to employ occupation safety and health requirements to keep workers and the facility out of dangers. This lab was conducted to understand workplace safety and personal protective equipment (PPE). The objectives for the laboratory proceedings were to; understand the reasons to keep a work place environment safe, understand why we need effective housekeeping practices, familiarize with safety signs of a workplace, establish hazards at an engineering workshop, get acquainted with hazard control devices of a workplace, understand the PPE and the associated hazard control, and know the operation condition of PPE and assess the possible risks in case one uses an inappropriate or a damaged PPE.
Laboratory safety procedures demand that the technicians, lab instructors, and the students maintain health and safety of themselves and all other users and people within the laboratory (Jensen, 2012). The regulations require that none works alone or carries food in the workshop. Also, students must ensure proper housekeeping, observe cleanliness, and the workshop must be left in a secure mode by making sure that the equipment is off and all the PPEs safely stored. The students need to use only the provided equipment. Any faulty equipment should be immediately reported and replaced. Moreover, people must keep a safe distance from the moving machines and electrical equipment. It is also advised that before operating on circuits, students should remove watches and jewelry, including those of very low voltages. Other precautions require that students do not transfer equipment to other locations without permission and that they must be vigilant against the possible hazards and avoid distractions or jokes at the workshop. The laboratory should also have first aid kits and fire extinguishers at easy to reach dispositions. All serious unsafe conditions must be immediately reported to the instructors.
Equipment and Apparatus
An accessibility to an electrical workshop equipped with various personal protective equipment, safety signs, and hazard management tools.
Experimental Set up and Procedure
The entire lab was a demonstration of how to ensure safety and health at a workshop. The practice was conducted at an electrical laboratory and the whole lab was subdivided into tasks 1 to 3. The first task entailed understanding the best occupational safety and health practices. The instructor offered guidance of housekeeping, hazard warnings, PPEs, first aid kits and fire extinguishers, evacuation points during emergency, safety guards for moving machines, and safety walkways on the workshop that would protect a person from the present hazards. The student team made notes and captured photos that helped to describe how the workplace ought to be kept safe and healthy. Moreover, the details of the unsafe aspects were recorded and reported to the instructor.
The second task covered a demonstration on safety information, restrictions, instructions, and hazard warning signs. These elements were classified as graphical symbols that offered safety instructions, hazard warning signs in either diamond or triangle symbols with the hazard type within the shapes, prohibited practices, shown within the red circles with a restriction line diagonally positioned, and the safe information signs which guide users to significant hazard control systems. For this task, each team was required to search the internet and find a total of 16 safety signs, which include four safety instructions signs, four hazard warning signs, four prohibited practices/restricted items, and four safety information signs.
The third task demanded that each group discusses a range of defective PPE provided in the lab and assesses the risk level when working with such equipment.
Data/Results
Task One
A demonstration of a safe and healthy workplace is as in the photo below:

Figure 1: A safe and healthy workplace

Task Two
Four Safety Instructions Signs:

Four Hazard Warnings Signs:

Figure 2: Fork lifts in use

Figure 3: Isolate Mains Supply before Opening

Figure 4: Flammable Substance

Figure 5: Biological Hazard

Signs for Prohibited Practices

Figure 6: No Mobile Phones Symbol

Figure 7: Authorized Persons Only

Figure 8: Eating Prohibited

Figure 9: No Smoking Sign

Safety Information Signs

Figure 10: Fire Extinguisher

Figure 11: First Aid Kit

Figure 12: Emergency Exit Sign

Figure 13: Safety When Lifting Heavy Weight

Task Three
In the third task, the instructor issued the defective PPEs of gloves, boots, helmet, and glasses. Each team was tasked to describe the scope of protection assuming a good condition of the assigned equipment, identify hazards that would not be controlled, and assess the risks on a worker who uses defective PPE.

Figure 14: Defective PPEs
Discussion and Analysis
Occupational safety and health (OSH) demands that a workshop should be safely arranged to protect both the facility and workers. Some of the practices to ensure safety are housekeeping, application of instructions and posters that provide hazard warning, provision of PPE, ensuring fire extinguishers and first aid kits are in the right and easily accessible locations, placing emergency stop devices, safety guards, or braking systems on moving and rotating machines, and, finally, ensure that all the walkways are safe and clear from hazards (Neitzel, 2016).
There are various workplace safety signs. The poster below is a representation of the warning signs necessary for laboratory precautions.
SAFETY AND HEALTH POSTER
Safety Instructions Signs:

Hazard Warning Signs:

Prohibited Practices Signs:

Safety Information Signs:

Safety sign boards have various colors and shapes. The squares show either emergency or information signs. They are either yellow or green and point to workshop users where certain safety equipment is located. For instance, they tell workers the locations of first aid kits, fire extinguisher, and emergency exits among others. The reds are often used for prohibition and are circular with a diagonal line across them. For example, they include restriction signs like restricted areas, eating, smoking, and mobile phone usage restrictions. Warning signs are mostly triangular or diamond in shape and have yellow backgrounds. These signs warn people against hazards and risks in negative workshop practices. They include; signs for forklifts use, warning against danger electricity, fire risks and biological hazards (Salvendy, 2012). Finally, we have safe instructions signs often pointing to workers the dangers of working without PPEs. The signs have blue backgrounds and include; head protections, ear protection, foot, and eye protection symbols. Proper following of the above signs during the laboratory or workshop operations ensures the safety of workers, visitors as well as the facility itself.
Various workshops demand that the worker puts on or wears the right personal protective equipment (PPE). Different PPEs have particular protective functions on their users and must be warn depending on what work or laboratory practice dictates. For instance, foot wares such as boots or closed shoes should be worn while operating in an electrical workshop or while handling machines. Defective boots expose users to possible feet injuries such as cuts from equipment in the workshop. Safety goggles and glasses help operators to protect their eyes against excessive light during welding, exposure to dangerous chemicals and possible splash of small solid speckles. Goggles that are worn out expose the users to hazardous chemical, dangerous lights, and dusts that can ultimately lead to serious eye problems and other health conditions. Another effective protective measure during a workshop practice is the use of head covers such as helmets. This PPE protect the user from head harm in the event a small material falls on him or if he slides and falls on his head side. Head damages that would otherwise be avoided are likely to occur when a worker uses a broken helmet. During the lab, ear protection is also necessary. Ear protection safeguards users from harmful noise, and sometimes aids in effective concentration and avoids distractions when working. Hearing problems are likely to occur when the ear PPE is damaged. Basically, defective PPEs are dangerous to users and should be immediately replaced before causing serious harm.
Conclusion
All workshops or laboratories should follow the ultimate demands of the occupational health and safety (OSH) to avoid possible dangers on human, environment and facility health. During lab practices, the instructor should ensure that the room or the workshop is properly ventilated, follows a housekeeping requirements, has sufficient posters and signs, and that the machines are all in good conditions. All the lab users must have the necessary PPEs with good working conditions. Any issue relating to health and safety must be reported immediately to the lab attendant.

References
Jensen, R. C. (2012). Risk Reduction Methods for Occupational Safety and Health. John Wiley & Sons.
Neitzel, D. K. (2016). Electrical Safety Update—OSHA 29 CFR 1910.269 and NFPA 70E-2015 Revisions. IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 52(4), 2753-2758.
Salvendy, G. (2012). Handbook of human factors and ergonomics. John Wiley & Sons.

Order | Check Discount

Tags: Basic Workplace Safety and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)