PPE: Technology and trends

In addition to legislative changes and the need to be commercially competitive, safety managers are dealing with emerging issues like migrant workers (and the cultural and language differences), an increasingly ageing workforce and the mounting emphasis on health and well-being.

According to the second European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER-2), which in the summer and autumn of 2014 gathered the opinions of 49,320 businesses across 36 countries (including the 28 EU member states), there are five main influencers driving the health and safety industry:

•  Fulfilling legal obligations – 85%

•  Meeting expectations from employees or their representatives – 79%

•  Avoiding fines from labour inspectorates – 78%

•  Maintaining the organisation’s reputation – 76%

•  Maintaining or increasing productivity – 64%

Preventing workplace injuries is key and putting effective safeguards and working practices in place is essential. However, the very best safeguards will count for little if compliance is not achieved. Consequently, safety managers, increasingly, are turning to PPE solutions that incorporate the latest technology and innovation. Several key trends have developed.

Visual compliance recognition

Compliance is critical in any safety framework and presents a challenge wherever people are concerned. Any non-compliance – whether for a second or a shift – undermines safety. Safety managers are under pressure to reduce injury levels by ensuring compliance, but time pressures mean this needs to be achieved quickly and efficiently.

Compliance can be checked easily usually through a clear and visually defined colour or number system (or a combination of both) built into the PPE’s fabric. Examples on the market include safety harnesses with colour-changing fall indicators built into the stitching to reveal when the harness has been exposed to a worker fall and should not be used again. Other solutions include protective gloves with specific numbers and colours corresponding to EN388 cut resistance levels and gloves with different colours inside and out to help identify when the glove’s protective exterior has been breached.  

Materials technology

The development of new, high performance materials across the PPE sector not only helps PPE manufacturers and safety managers ensure consistent quality and safety performance, but overcomes any potential issues of sustainability and consistency associated with the use of natural materials such as leather. 

The latest materials not only offer better mechanical, chemical and thermal performance but more comfort. Productivity is increased due to improved flexibility, breathability and durability. 

These performance benefits can be seen in the latest generation of fall arrest harnesses which are manufactured from highly flexible, waterproof materials such as DuraFlex stretch webbing. This material withstands the natural elements more effectively and does not become waterlogged and heavy in the rain, providing greater freedom of movement and comfort for the worker.

Technical fibres and coatings such as Polyamide and Nitrile have greatly improved hand and arm protection from mechanical hazards when compared to traditional materials such as leather, which have natural performance limitations. 

Connectivity

Ensuring that workers are ‘connected’ to their environment both physically and emotionally helps safety managers with user acceptance, compliance and productivity.

At a practical level, it is critical that those who need to physically connect to their PPE at key points of their work (rather than wear it continually) can do so easily. Ideally, putting it on should become second nature; PPE needs to be user-friendly, comfortable and not hinder the job. Interoperability and connectivity between different PPE types is important. Also, workers shouldn’t feel isolated from their environment and their colleagues.

This is where technology can help safety managers. The latest developments in safety eyewear, for example, give the user the flexibility to adapt the width fitting and lens angle to their own head shape or select lenses with different technical coatings to adapt to specific environments and hazards or prevent scratches or fogging.

The latest hearing protection products prevent Noise Induced Hearing Loss and ensure workers can communicate effectively, even in high-noise environments. These use bionic hearing technologies, such as in-ear dosimetry, to offer intelligent hearing protection which reproduces natural sound through ultra-fast digital processors. This provides active hearing protection against continuous, intermittent and impact noise, whilst allowing clear and easy user communication. Earmuffs are available that enable workers to listen to music or the radio. These solutions all look to overcome problems of work isolation and unnecessarily excessive noise attenuation.

Not only is the appliance of science in the PPE industry enabling businesses to meet their legal obligations, it is increasingly providing safety managers with the type of support and performance that can increase workers’ compliance, safety and productivity significantly.