
For a lot of people, getting down to business means doing, more than often, dangerous work. Think of firefighters, for instance, who risk their lives and bodies in order to put out harmful fires and conflagrations that threaten people and property.
Think of nurses or physicians who expose and risk their integrity to deal with dangerous diseases. Or what about construction workers who are exposed to falling debris and accidents on a daily basis?
Such individuals, and others like them who work in risky positions, need all the protection they can get to protect their health and wellbeing in the workplace.
To ensure they have the necessary protection, workers must have the necessary safety workwear protection and other protective equipment or PPE workwear.
5 Professions for Which PPE is Crucial
Vehicle cleaners
Being a vehicle cleaner may not come across as a pretty dangerous job, but since these individuals often work with harmful caustic substances, they are constantly exposed to chemical burns and chemical inhalations.
According to a study by researchers from Michigan State University, being a vehicle cleaner is one of the most high-risk professions when it comes to job-related burn injuries, as the products they use to do their job contain corrosive elements such as hydrofluoric acid.
Thus, it’s important for vehicle cleaners to protect their hands and faces with gloves and protective workwear such as glasses and respirators.
Food service personnel
If you were to take a look into any restaurant you would probably find their kitchen full of items that can cause injuries to the chefs and the people working inside.
As such, food service personnel is also considered a dangerous occupation, making those who work in crowded kitchens wear the right protective gear.
Wearing a proper chef’s apron and a jacket is necessary to create a barrier between flammable elements, heat and the body. Additionally, chefs often have to wear cut-resistant gloves that can protect them from cut injuries.
Finally, it is common to see food service personnel also wearing non-slip shoes to prevent fall injuries caused by wet or slippery floors.
Electrical workers
Electrical workers and other individuals who work handling electrical equipment and elements are constantly at risk of electric shock, burns and wounds.
PPE is required to do electrical work in spite of how cumbersome it may be. It’s important to always avoid harm. PPE for electrical workers includes non-conductive clothing, rubber gloves, and safety glasses.
Foresters
Harvesting trees is certainly a dangerous job, thanks to the perils posed by logging machines and the weight of the trees being harvested.
Additionally, the difficult working conditions make this worse, putting foresters in constant danger. It’s paramount for these individuals to wear protective equipment when working in the field.
These include leg protection, chainsaw gloves, heavy-duty logging boots, helmets and goggles, earplugs and, often, full-face shields.
Laboratory personnel
Laboratories and clinics can be petri dish of hazards and dangers, depending on the diseases being treated and the specimens and agents being kept and studied.
Biological labs can be home to samples of viruses and bacterias, most of which represent a considerable hazard, or they can be facilities dedicated to the research of traditional infectious pathogens.
On the other hand, clinics and labs often involve the processing of chemicals, which also demands the use of protective workwear and PPE specially designed for the health and safety industry such as splash-proof and flame-retardant aprons, gloves and goggles.
Even though the use of PPE workwear doesn’t eliminate the presence of danger in the workplace, they are key in reducing worker’s exposure to these harmful elements and situations, as well as lessening the seriousness of any potential injury.
In a lot of cases, PPE equipment is all that stands between workers and a terrible and fatal situation.