Understanding the risks

What protection do I need? To understand what protection you need, you have to know what risks you face. The best way to do this is to make risk analyses in which you investigate, assess and document the risks of a specific work environment. In work areas that already have been analysed systematically, make sure you know the risk level before you enter that specific risk environment, and wear appropriate clothing.

Protective wear, often referred to as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), can have one or more CE (European Conformity) marks, which means the garment conforms to a number of regulations, standards and norms. In some scenarios and working conditions, protective wear can mean the difference between life and death for the wearer.

How do I know the protection level of my outfit? First of all, you must choose clothing with the appropriate CE mark for the specific risk environment. CE-marked protective clothing provides different types of protection, such as against heat, flames and chemicals, as well as things like high visibility and anti-static properties. However, when working in environments that involve a risk of electric arcing, you must also ensure your clothing offers a level of protection that corresponds to the risk level of the work environment. You do this by adding up the total number of calories of all the layers of your outfit. Note that high-risk environments require that ALL garments you wear, including underwear and base layers, to offer protection against heat and flames.

What sort of risks do I face? Working in high-risk environments involves, as the name implies, high risk levels. Arcs due to electrical faults can cause severe injuries and damage. Consequences include thermal injury, serious burns, electric shock, noise, UV emissions, pressure and shrapnel, as well as toxic exposure and the impact of physical and mental shock.

Risk environments and categories.

There are many types of risk areas where workers need protective wear. Examples of these areas are environments where workers may be exposed to electrical hazards, the risk of collision as well as thermal, chemical and mechanical risks. These risk environments present various levels of risk and therefore require different types of protective wear.

In order to meet the protective requirements of each specific risk area, protective wear is divided into three categories. Category I indicates exposure to minimal risks, and for this category there are CE standards such as EN 343 (rain protection) and EN 14058 (cold protection). Category II includes exposure to medium risks, and EN 20471 (high visibility clothing) is an example of a standard in this category. Category III covers exposure to serious risks, which include major hazards such as electric arcs and molten metal splashes or liquid chemicals.

In summary, the higher the category number, the higher the level of protection.

20471 11612 11416 61482 13034 11611 342

Read more at snickersworkwear.com or page 76-81.

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