Strategies for buying PPE

In a day where having protective equipment on site or at your facility is required by the employer rather than the employee I see a lot of companies running into the same issue.  Who should budget for PPE?  Who should create the policies for Safety?  When I talk with customers there are a lot of different ways companies have incorporated safety programs, budgeting, and purchasing.  Here is a great article as seen in the October 2012 issue of ISHN. For more information, go to www.ishn.com.

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From the trenches: Strategies for buying PPE

Recently we came across this online discussion group topic: “Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)…. Which department in the company should budget and pay for it? What do you think of safety department paying for PPE for all departments in the company? “

Here are the responses:

“Every department should be charged for its PPE but Engineering should pay 65% of cost of PPE and Maintenance be charged 20% of PPE cost. E/OHS department could be charged between 3% – 5%.

This encourages Engineering to find means of eliminating the hazard or engineering a means of reducing exposure or substituting a less hazardous product or process that reduces hazard severity and/or worker exposure.

It also encourages Maintenance to have and follow detailed preventative maintenance program to eliminate hazards associated with equipment not being within specifications and SOP.

It also encourages each production department to train workers on proper equipment operation, associated hazards, how minimize exposure and where to get additional information about the hazard(s).

“This approach will help minimize the need for PPE and increase worker understanding and proper use of appropriate PPE. “

“I don’t believe completely charging PPE to the E/OHS department is a good practice. When things are getting eliminated to lower the budget, safety is all too easy a target in as much as it’s not always easy to recognize injuries/illnesses that aren’t happening and conclude the expense is wasted.”

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Keep your workplace safe by knowing and complying 2012 NFPA 70E

There are hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries on the job each year.  It is an employer’s responsibility to ensure personnel safety, yet employees must also be able to identify and address electrical hazards.  Avoid tragedies on your watch by increasing your knowledge of the NFPA 70E.  Developed at OSHA’s request, the NFPA 70E is the most widely used codebook.  It is a helpful resource in identifying electrical safety hazards in the workplace and reducing employee exposure to those potentially fatal hazards.

Werner Electric Supply has recognized the importance of NFPA 70E.  As a result, we are stocking the new NFPA 70E 2012 (Standard Edition and Workbook Edition) as well as a complete line Arc Flash PPE to make your team safe in any environment.  Additionally, we offer a detailed and expert-led seminar that will provide you the steps and skills necessary to recognize electrical safety hazards and information required for accurately performing an ARC Flash analysis.  Some of the things you will learn are:

• What causes an ARC Flash
• Regulations and standards
• Methods to reduce ARC Flash, ARC Blast, and Shock Hazards
• How to comply with NFPA 70E 2012 and OSHA requirements

Click here for a schedule of classes.