Hi friends!!!
In today's scenario of increasing corona virus cases, it is important for every people to have awareness about personal protective equipment to protect themselves and others from infectious agents.
Let's get into the topic.
WHY PERSONAL
PROTECTIVE
EQUIPMENT?
Personal Protective Equipment is used to prevent exposure to infectious materials. Infectious materials can be like airborne, droplets, direct contact. And also personal protective equipment will prevent workers from health and safety risks on the job. The personal protective equipment is useful to prevent the individual from physical, chemical and biological hazards that might be encountered. Apart from healthcare industry, it is also widely used in construction industry, engineering, fire safety and many other fields.
WHAT ARE THE
CATEGORIES OF PERSONAL
PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT?
1. Eye and Face Protection.
2. Hand Protection.
3. Body Protection.
4. Respiratory Protection.
5. Hearing Protection.
WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF
PERSONAL PROTECTIVE
EQUIPMENT?
The following are the types of personal protective equipment.
FACE SHIELD
Face shield is a plastic barrier that covers the face.
The shield should extend below the chin anteriorly and to the ears laterally.
There should be no exposed gap between forehead and the shield’s headpiece.
Face shields are known to reduce viral exposure by 68% to 96%.
GLOVES
Gloves will cover the hands and wrist, thus protecting the skin contact from germs. In healthcare gloves are mostly made of latex or nitrile. Now a day’s nitrile is preferred over latex because of allergic nature of the latex.
How to remove your gloves safely?
1. Use your left hand and grab the outer side of your
right glove at the wrist.
2. Pull down the glove towards your finger. The glove
will turn inside out.
3. Now hold the empty glove with your left hand.
4. Put two right hand fingers inside your left glove’s
wrist ( not to touch the outer surface of the left glove ).
5. Pull your two fingers downwards until you have pulled
the left glove inside out and off from your hand. Now the right glove will be
inside your left glove.
6. Throw the gloves in a appropriate waste container.
NOTE: When you take of your gloves, make sure the outside of your gloves do
not touch your bare hands.
GOGGLES and GLASSES
Goggles protect the eyes from infectious droplets. It
fits around the eyes securely whereas protective glasses only protect the front
and sides of the eyes. Goggles should have good seal with the skin of the face,
covering the eyes and the surrounding areas. It are designed in a manner to
accommodate the prescription glasses
GOWNS
Gowns provide 360 degree protection because they are
designed to cover the whole body including the back and the lower legs.
HEAD COVERS
Those who are using gowns should use head covers to
cover their head. All hair and hair extensions should fit inside the head
cover. Head cover should be elastic enough to cover the ears as well.
MASKS
Masks are used to prevent your mouth and nose from
contracting the infectious agents.
There are three types of masks as following
1. Surgical Masks
2. Respiratory Protective Masks
3. Cloth Masks
Read my blog to know in detail about masks.
How to wear and remove a mask?
1. Choose the face mask with correct size.
2. Make the colored side of the mask as the outer surface.
3. Hold the mask using ear loops and place it over your
ears.
4. Don’t touch the inner surface of the mask while wearing
the mask, because infectious agents in your hand may contaminate the inner
surface and you tend to inhale it.
5. Mold the stiff edge over your nose shape, to hold your
mask firmly without any gap between mask and face skin.
6. Likewise remove your mask using ear loops. Don’t touch
the outer surface of the mask while removing, because contaminants in the outer
surface of the mask may stick to your hand.
7. Dispose the mask in a trash as soon as you remove it.
SHOE COVERS
Shoe cover should be made up of impermeable fabric to
be used over shoes to provide personnel protection as well as to protect the
environment from the contamination due to germs in the bottom surface of shoes.
EARPLUGS AND EARMUFFS
According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, about 82% occupational hearing loss occurred to workers in manufacturing sector. Both earplugs and earmuffs are hearing protection equipment's. Earplugs are more effective for reducing high frequency noises. Earmuffs are more effective in reducing low frequency noises. 85dB is considered as a safe noise threshold and the level at which appropriate hearing protection must be worn.
Too much of hearing protection may increase workplace dangers by blocking critical communications or noise.
Use of personal protective equipment is required by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Regulations in 29 CFR Part 1910. It is also required by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations in 40 CFR Part 300.
NOTE: Employees must have medical clearance from a
licensed physician to wear a respirator or personal protective equipment.
Now I hope you have
acquired some knowledge about Personal Protective Equipment. We will discuss
about topics related to Biomedical Engineering, Medical Devices, Healthcare in
our next blog.
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