FEATURE
PROTECTION YOU CAN COUNT ON
For those working with the risk of electric arc, wearing the correct clothing can mean the difference between life or death. Peter Dumigan, Managing Director of the Hultafors Group UK, advises.
It is an employer’s legal responsibility to ensure that staff have the right level of protection and training against risks on site. Nevertheless, employees have a personal responsibility to be aware of risks and potential injuries to ensure adequate protection for
themselves, their safety and wellbeing.
Depending on the job task to be performed, personal protective equipment (PPE) for electricians generally includes safety glasses, face shields, hard hats, safety shoes, insulating (rubber) gloves and flame-resistant clothing.
PROTECTIVE WEAR VS WORKWEAR – A
MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH In terms of clothing, there’s a big difference between conventional workwear and specialist protective wear. Over the years, workwear has evolved to make your working day more comfortable and efficient, with built- in functionality for tools and fixings, as well as protection against cold, rain and the effects of warm weather.
Protective wear, which can have one or more CE (European Conformity) marks, has been designed and developed to protect the wearer from serious risks such as heat, flames, electric arcs and hazardous chemicals. In effect, clothing that can mean the difference between life and death for the wearer.
RISK ENVIRONMENTS AND CE PROTECTION
CATEGORIES. In order to meet the protective requirements of a specific risk area, protective wear is divided into three categories - the higher the category number, the higher the level of protection.
Category I covers exposure to minimal risks, and for this category there are CE standards such as EN 343 (rain protection) and EN 14058 (cold protection).
Category II includes exposure to medium risks, for instance EN 20471 for high visibility clothing.
Category III covers exposure to serious risks, which include major hazards such as electric arcs and molten metal splashes or liquid chemicals.
WHAT PROTECTION DO ELECTRICIANS NEED? To be able to properly identify what protection
34
you need, you have to know what risks you, your employees or your workmates face.
Never assume that a Category I garment will protect against the more serious hazards and risks defined in Category III. It wont and you’ll be putting yourself at serious risk if you think it will.
That means understanding the hazards and risks of a specific electrician’s working environment or knowing the risk level before you start work and therefore wear appropriate clothing and PPE accessories.
That risk assessment and therefore the determination of the calorie levels required in the clothing needed has to be carried out by the company buying the clothing. Importantly, each working situation will have its own required minimum protection depending on the risk situation.
HOW DO I KNOW THE PROTECTION LEVEL OF
MY OUTFIT? It all starts with having working clothes with the appropriate CE mark for the specific risk environment.
In work locations that involve a risk of electric arcing, you must also ensure your clothing offers a level of protection that corresponds to the risk level – Category III.
You do this by adding up the total number of Calories of all the layers of your outfit and it’s important to remember that high-risk environments require that all the clothes you wear, including underwear and base layers provide protection against heat and flames.
For instance, using Snickers Workwear ergonomically designed ProtekWork clothing, a typical set of garments that could be worn in an electric arc risk environment would be:
• Base layer – 2462 long sleeve turtle-neck shirt and a pair of 9468 wool long johns.
• Mid layer – 2660 long sleeve polo shirt and a 2862 ProtecWork hoodie.
www.tomorrowshs.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
