Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is there to keep you and your workforce safe and is a range of products we pride ourselves on at CHARNAUD. Poor PPE quality, or poor PPE compliance, puts this important objective at extreme risk. If one doesn’t wear fire safety equipment in the proper manner, there is a significantly increased risk of being burned. Ensuring that all personnel is not just wearing their PPE but wearing it correctly is one of the duties a site manager or employer must take on, otherwise, a variety of risks are being taken.
Personal Health and Safety Risks
There are two main risks of poor PPE compliance. The first is the risk to the health and safety of all those working, and the second is the legal ramifications if an accident does occur. For more information on PPE, you can have a look at our blog.
Risk of Poor PPE Compliance: Injury
Poor PPE compliance greatly increases the risk of injury. Burns, cuts, punctures, electrocution, slips – the list goes on. Proper footwear can prevent many of these, as can appropriate gloves, clothing, headgear, goggles, face protection, and so on. There are specially designed PPE options for every job and come available with a variety of different safety features to best suit the job and the activities your employees will need to be taken. CHARNAUD offers many of these options, and always guarantees top quality items so you can ensure you are not inviting in risk by buying poor-quality PPE when you purchase from us.
Now Read: PPE Safety Standards: A Glossary of Terms
Risk of Poor PPE Compliance: Contamination
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it necessary for every business to adopt PPE as standard to reduce the risk of infection. By not doing all you can and using the right PPE correctly you, your employees, and your customers can become susceptible to contraction.
CHARNAUD has a superior-quality range of Medi-Safe® personal protective clothing/equipment.
Risk of Poor PPE Compliance: Disability
Correct PPE protects the body, and in some cases prevents disability, especially regarding the senses like eyesight. Poor PPE or poor PPE compliance could leave an employee permanently disabled and unable to work again.
CHARNAUD has SURVIVE-ARC® protective wear that protects the worker against the thermal effects of an electric arc flash.
Legal Risks
Legal Risks of Poor PPE Compliance: You Cannot Allow Them to Work
If your employees lack compliance with the health and safety regulations outlined by your health and safety check, then you cannot allow them to work until they do. It is for their safety and for your own protection as well.
If, after a health and safety check, your auditor determines you need new high-quality PPE, you can source PPE from a provider like CHARNAUD.
Legal Risks of Poor PPE Compliance: You Open Yourself Up to Liability
Both the employer and the employee in question open themselves up to liability issues if they do not wear PPE when required or wear it incorrectly. If the employee has a history of refusing to wear or wearing PPE incorrectly, and has been written up for the infraction several times when an accident occurs, the fault could fall on the employee.
If you do not properly police your employees when it comes to personal protective equipment, then you, as the employer will be culpable. Your culpability increases in severity if the PPE you provide your employees is not suited to the job at hand, poor quality, damaged, or not stocked in enough numbers. You are putting your employees at risk and are entirely responsible if an accident occurs that would have been prevented with proper PPE. In fact, even if the accident would have occurred regardless of whether there was adequate PPE, you can still be held responsible for not upholding your responsibility towards health and safety to its highest standard.
Visit CHARNAUD’s Website to View Personal Protective Equipment
Now that the importance of PPE and the risks of poor PPE compliance has been highlighted, you may need to brush up on the products that your company may need. You can contact us to discuss your company’s needs and we can help to suggest the products you require.