| Protective Clothing & Equipment |
| General |
 Merchant
Shipping Regulations require employers to ensure that
every employee engaged in a specified work process, or
who may be at risk from such a process, is supplied with
suitable protective clothing and equipment. Overalls,
gloves and suitable footwear are the proper working dress
for most work about the ship but these may not give
adequate protection against particular hazards in
particular jobs. Specific
recommendations for the use of special protective
clothing and equipment will also be found in certain
sections of the Code but there will be other occasions
when the need for such special protection can only be
determined at the time by the officer in charge of the
particular operation. Protective
clothing or equipment does nothing to reduce the hazard,
it merely sets up a frail barrier against it. The first
step in injury prevention should be the elimination of
the hazard to the extent that is reasonable and
practicable. Personal protective clothing and equipment
should be relied upon to afford protection against the
hazards that remain. Defective or
ineffective protective equipment provide no defence. It
is therefore essential that the correct items of
equipment are selected and that they are properly
maintained at all times. The manufacturer's instructions
should be kept safe with the relevant apparatus and when
necessary referred to before use and when maintenance is
carried out. The equipment should be kept clean and
should be disinfected as and when necessary for health reasons. A
responsible officer should inspect each item of
protective equipment at regular intervals and in all
cases before and after use. He should ensure that it is
returned and properly stowed in a safe place. Personal
protective clothing and equipment should always be
checked by the wearer each time before use. All
personnel who may be required to use protective equipment
should be properly trained in its use and advised of its
limitations. Personal
protective clothing and equipment can be classified as
follows: Head protection (safety helmets, hair
protection); Hearing protection; Face and eye protection
(goggles and spectacles, facial shields); Respiratory
protective equipment (dust masks, respirators, breathing
apparatus); Hand and foot protection (gloves, safety
boots and shoes); Body protection (safety suits, safety
belts, harnesses, aprons); Protection against drowning (lifejackets, buoyancy aids and
lifebuoys). |
| Head protection |
Safety helmets
Objects
falling from a height present a hazard against which
safety helmets are most commonly provided. Other hazards
include abnormal heat, risk of a sideways blow or
crushing, or chemical splashes. These four different
types of common risk are given as a guide only and are
not intended to be comprehensive. Since the
hazards are so varied in type it will be appreciated that
no one type of helmet would be ideal as protection in
every case. Design details are normally decided by the
manufacturer whose primary consideration will be
compliance with an appropriate standard. The shell of
a helmet should be of one piece seamless construction
designed to resist impact. The harness or suspension when
properly adjusted forms a cradle for supporting the
protector on the wearer's head. The crown straps help
absorb the force of impact. They are designed to permit a
clearance of approximately 25 mm between the shell and
the skull of the wearer. The harness or suspension should
be properly adjusted before a helmet is worn.Bump caps A bump cap is
simply an ordinary cap with a hard penetration-resistant
shell. They are useful as a protection against bruising
and abrasion when working in confined spaces such as a
main engine crankcase or a double bottom tank. They do
not, however, afford the same protection as safety
helmets and are intended only to protect against minor
knocks.Hair nets and safety caps Personnel
working on or near to moving machinery have always to be
on their guard against the possibility of loose clothing,
jewellery, or their hair becoming entangled in the
machinery. In the case of long hair, hair nets or safety
caps should be worn where any risk of entanglement
exists. |
| Hearing protection |
| All
persons exposed to high levels of noise, e.g. in
machinery spaces, should wear ear protectors of a type
recommended as suitable for the particular circumstances.
Protectors are of three types - ear plugs, disposable or
permanent, and ear muffs. The simplest
form of ear protection is the glass-down ear plug. This
type however has the disadvantage of limited capability
of noise level reduction. Ear plugs of rubber or plastic
also have only limited effect, in that extremes of high
or low frequency cause the plug to vibrate in the ear
canal causing a consequential loss in protection. In general,
ear muffs provide a more effective form of hearing
protection. They consist of a pair of rigid cups designed
to completely envelope the ears, fitted with soft sealing
rings to fit closely against the head around the ears.
The ear cups are connected by a spring loaded headband
(or neck band) which ensures that the sound seals around
the ears are maintained. Different types are available
and provision should be made according to the
circumstances of use and expert advice. |
| Face and Eye Protection |
| In
selecting eye and combined eye and face protectors,
careful consideration should be given to the kind and
degree of the hazard, and the degree of protection and
comfort afforded. The main
causes of eye injury are: (a) infra-red rays--gas welding; (b) ultra-violet rays--electric welding; (c) exposure to chemicals; (d) exposure to particles and foreign bodies. Protectors are available in a wide variety, designed to British Standard specifications, to protect against these different types of hazard. Ordinary
prescription (corrective) spectacles, unless manufactured
to safety standard, do not afford protection. Certain
box-type goggles are so that they can be worn over
ordinary spectacles. |
| Respiratory protective equipment |
|
Respiratory protective equipment of the appropriate type
is essential for protection when work has to be done in
conditions of irritating, dangerous or poisonous dust,
fumes or gases. The equipment may be either a respirator,
which filters the air before it is breathed, or breathing
apparatus which supplies air or oxygen from an
uncontaminated source. The selection of the correct
respiratory protective equipment for any given situation
requires consideration of the nature of the hazard, the
severity of the hazard, work requirements and conditions,
and the characteristics and limitations of available
equipment. Advice on selection and the use and
maintenance of the equipment is contained in the relevant
British Standard, which should be available to all those
concerned with the use of respiratory protective
equipment on board ship. It is most
important that the face-piece incorporated in respirators
and breathing apparatus is fitted correctly to prevent
leakage. The wearing of spectacles, unless adequately
designed for the purpose, or of beards and whiskers is
likely to adversely affect the face seal. Respirators The
respirator selected must be of a type designed to protect
against the hazards being met. The most
common type is the dust respirator, affording protection
against dusts and aerosol sprays but not against gases.
There are many types of dust respirator available but
they are generally of the ori-nasal type, i.e. half-masks
covering the nose and mouth. Many types of light, simple
face masks are also available and are extremely useful
for protecting against dust nuisance and non-toxic sprays
but should never be used in place of proper protection
against harmful dusts or sprays. The positive
pressure powered dust respirator incorporates a
face-piece connected by a tube to a battery-powered
blower unit carried by the wearer to create a positive
pressure in the face-piece and thus make breathing easier
and reduce face-seal leakage. The
cartridge-type of respirator consists of a full
face-piece or half mask connected to a replaceable
cartridge containing absorbent or adsorbent material and
a particulate filter. It is designed to provide
protection against low concentrations of certain
relatively non-toxic gases and vapours. The
canister-type of respirator incorporates a full
face-piece connected to an absorbent or adsorbent
material contained in a replaceable canister carried in a
sling on the back or side of the wearer. This type gives
considerably more protection than the cartridge type. The filters,
canisters and cartridges incorporated in respirators are
designed to provide protection against certain specified
dusts or gases. Different types are available to provide
protection against different hazards and it is therefore
important that the appropriate type is selected for the
particular circumstances or conditions being encountered.
It must be remembered, however, that they have a limited
effective life and must be replaced or renewed at
intervals in accordance with manufacturers' instructions
. Respirators
provide NO protection against oxygen deficient
atmosphere. They should never be used to provide
protection in confined spaces such as tanks, cofferdams,
double bottoms or other similar spaces against dangerous
fumes, gases or vapours. Only breathing apparatus
(self-contained or airline) is capable of giving
protection in such circumstances.Breathing apparatus The type of
breathing apparatus to be used when entering a space that
is known to be, or suspected of being deficient in oxygen
or containing toxic gases or vapours is given in section "Entering Enclosed or Confined
Spaces" - 'Breathing Apparatus and Resuscitation
Equipment'. Breathing
apparatus should not be used under water unless the
equipment is suitable for the purpose, and then only in
an emergency.Resuscitators It is
recommended that resuscitators of an appropriate kind
should be provided when any person may be required to
enter a dangerous space. |
| Hand and Foot Protection |
| Gloves The correct
type of gloves should be chosen according to the hazard
being faced and the kind of work being undertaken. For
example, leather gloves are generally best when handling
rough or sharp objects, heat-resistant gloves when
handling, hot objects, and rubber, synthetic or PVC
gloves when handling acids, alkalis, various types of
oils, solvents and chemicals in general. The exact type
selected will depend upon the particular substance being
handled, and in these cases expert advice should be
followed. Footwear Foot
injuries most often result from the wearing of unsuitable
footwear rather than from failure to wear safety shoes or
boots. It is nevertheless strongly advisable that all
personnel whilst at work on board ship, wear appropriate
safety footwear. The hazards
commonly encountered cause injury as a result of impact,
penetration through the sole, slipping, heat and
crushing. Safety footwear is available which is designed
to protect against these or other specific hazards,
manufactured to various British Standards appropriate to
the particular danger involved. |
| Protection from falls |
All
seamen who are working aloft, outboard or below decks or
in any other area where there is a risk of falling more
than 2 metres, should wear a safety harness (or belt with
shock absorber) attached to a lifeline. Likewise if a
vessel is shipping frequent seas, persons on deck should
wear a harness and, where practicable, should be secured
by lifeline as protection from falls and from being
washed overboard or against the ship's structure. Inertial
clamp devices allow more freedom in movement. |
| Body protection |
| Special
outerwear may be needed for protection when the seaman is
exposed to contact with particular contaminating or
corrosive substances. This apparel should be kept for the
particular purpose and dealt with as directed in the
relevant sections of this Code. |
| Protection against drowning |
| Where
work is being carried out overside or in an exposed
position where there is a reasonably foreseeable risk of
falling or being washed overboard or where work is being
carried out in or from a ship's boat a lifebuoy with
sufficient line should be provided. In addition and as
appropriate a lifejacket or
buoyancy aid should be provided. |
| Ends |
