Personal protective equipment

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Safety helmet redirects here. Often, "safety helmet" specifically means a workman's hard hat.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) refers to protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other gear designed to protect the wearer's body or clothing from injury by electrical hazards, heat, chemicals, and infection, for job-related occupational safety and health purposes, and in sports, martial arts, combat, etc. Personal armor is combat-specialized protective gear.

PPE can also be used to protect the working environment from pesticide application, pollution or infection from the worker (for example in a microchip factory).

The protection may be important in both ways, as with the use of disposable gloves by surgeons and dentists.

Protective clothing is also worn for contact sports, such as ice hockey and American football. Baseball players wear sliding shorts and a cup under their pants. See baseball clothing and equipment, goalie mask, jockstrap.

In British legislation the term PPE does not cover items such as armour.

Common protective materials include Nomex and Kevlar.

The terms "protective gear" and "protective clothing" are in many cases interchangeable; "protective clothing" is applied to traditional categories of clothing, and "gear" is a more general term and preferably means uniquely protective categories, such as pads, guards, shields, masks, etc.

For riding a motorcycle, protective headgear and eyegear are required by law in many countries.

File:Particulate mask.jpg
Filter mask

Respiratory protection


Protective headgear

File:Protection.jpg
a beekeeping hat, veil, and suit

Helmets

See Helmet#Types of helmet

Masks

Some masks made of hard material like those used by goaltenders in ice hockey (a goalie mask) and catchers in baseball as protection against being struck in the face.

Eye protection

File:Seal Swim Goggles.jpg
Goggles

See Eye protection.

Hearing protection

File:Chainsaw helmet.jpg
ear defenders and visor on a safety helmet

Other head/neck protection

File:Aa hardhat with visor.jpg
Safety helmet with visor

Arm/shoulder protection

File:Disposable nitrile glove.jpg
nitrile glove

Hand protection

Body protection

Leg/hip protection

File:Wooden Shoes-willow-plain wood.jpg
clogs

Protective footwear

Protective garments

Protective suit is an umbrella term for any suit or clothing which protects the wearer. Any specific design of suit may offer protection against biological and chemical chemical agents, particle radiation (alpha) and/or radiation (delta and gamma), and may offer flash protection in the case of bomb disposal suits. Most forms of industrial clothing are protective clothing. Personal protective equipment includes:

Complete suits

The word "chemsuit" is sometimes used to mean a real chemical-protection suit, as well as fictional.

Other garments

  • Zip-off Convertible Ventilated Trousers:
    File:Convertible Ventilated Trousers shown with one leg cover removed.jpg
    Convertible Ventilated Trousers shown with one leg cover removed
    These are pants styled in the zip-off fashion, where covers are removed from the lower section, exposing a mesh material on the lower leg. This allows the cooling and ventilation of shorts while providing the user the abrasion protection and appearance of regular pants. CVT's were originally designed for and are still predominantly used as work clothing, as the wearing of shorts is often prohibited for safety reasons in many industrial occupations.

Sets of equipment

  • Chainsaw protection (especially a helmet with face guard, hearing protection, kevlar chaps, anti-vibration gloves, and safety boots). Specific information about chainsaw protection is given in the chainsaw safety clothing article.
  • Bee keepers wear various levels of protection depending on the temperament of their bees and the reaction of the bees to nectar availability. At minimum most bee keepers wear a brimmed hat and a veil made of hardware cloth similar to window screen material. The next level of protection is offered by leather gloves with long gauntlets and by some way of keeping bees from crawling up one's trouser legs. In extreme cases, shirts and trousers are also fabricated to serve as barriers to the bees' stingers.
  • Diving equipment (scuba gear)

Other personal protective equipment

For horses

For equestrians, protection of their horses is not less important:

See also

de:Schutzkleidung it:Dispositivi di protezione individuale


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