PPE Noncompliance: A Serious Threat to Safety and Health PPE
In a recent survey by Kimberly-Clark Professional, 89% of safety professionals said they had observed workers not wearing PPE when they should have been, and 29% reported this had happened on numerous occasions.
"This high rate of noncompliance with personal protective equipment protocols presents a serious threat to worker health and safety," says Gina Tsiropoulos, manufacturing segment marketing manager for Kimberly-Clark Professional (www.kcprofessional.com).
"While the reasons for noncompliance are varied, the threat to workers is clear-cut. Without proper use of PPE, they are at risk of serious injury or even death."OSHA requires the use of PPE to reduce employee exposure to hazards when engineering and administrative controls are not feasible or effective.
Yet data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics show that of the workers who sustaining a variety of on-the-job injuries, the vast majority were not wearing PPE.So it is no surprise that 78% of survey respondents said that workplace accidents and injuries were the concerns most likely to keep them up at night.