Personal Protective Equipment When Working With Tools For Eyes, Hands, Headphones, Gloves

2023 Author: Philip Bishop | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 07:54

• How to protect your eyes from injury during hazardous work
• Our safety when working with an instrument of increased danger depends only on ourselves
• One of the indicators of the quality of a tool is its passive safety.
• Personal protective equipment and innovations in their development, guard your health
• Protection of a person from electric shock when working with tools
• Respiratory protection from exposure to harmful substances
• Competent use of the tool for its intended purpose will allow you to work without injuries
• Worker clothes should also be in order.

In everyday life, we very often have to use a different tool, and it can be passive or heightened danger. And when they start to forget about it, this danger instantly begins to show its grin, sometimes causing fatal wounds. Even professionals who use the tool almost every day, sometimes forgetting about vigilance, immediately begin to feel its insidiousness for its neglect.

And when this tool is in inexperienced hands, it becomes a terrible weapon and can pose a threat not only to the one in whose hands it is, but also to those around. Those who watched the comedy "Operation Y" could see how Shurik was "shooting back" from a jackhammer. This is a prime example of using the tool for other purposes. But each tool is accompanied by the manufacturer's instructions for competent and safe work with it. This is what we will talk about now.

How to protect your eyes from injury during hazardous work

When purchasing a tool, people practically do not read the attached instructions or read part of it, believing that everything is already clear and their ability to do the intended work is enough. They are more interested in the page with the warranty stamp. This failure to read the instructions carefully may result in damage to the purchased tool or the consumables will be damaged. In addition, the user can sometimes get hurt.

When working with a drill, sander or hammer drill, admit that you never wear safety glasses. Namely, for your eyes, people made these glasses. Apparently they were more worried about your vision than you are. When working with such tools, a huge number of tiny particles and pieces are formed, which scatter in different directions at a sufficiently high speed and, quite one of them is enough to spoil your vision. The inconvenience caused by the use of protective glasses when working with a tool is a far-fetched opinion, an excuse, and talking about the economic costs of purchasing glasses is simply inconvenient in comparison with the possibility of eye injury. The currently available safety glasses can even be worn over ordinary glasses. These include the Ecolux glasses, which have lateral protection and the ability to push the arms apart,which makes them versatile in use. These glasses are made of transparent polycarbonate, which is resistant to the impact of flying particles that form during processing. And the speed of flying particles when processing metal or concrete products can reach 45 meters per second, and the resulting eye injury at such a speed can be fatal for a person.

Our safety when working with an instrument of increased danger depends only on ourselves

A possible cause of eye injury when working with the tool may be an elementary non-observance of safety measures. So, careless attention to the place where you put the tool, which is turned off, but still continuing to rotate, can lead to the raising of a cloud of fine debris, which is also unsafe for your eyes.

Any electrified tool has special ventilation holes for cooling it, and if debris gets into them if you carelessly handle the tool, this debris can cause the tool to break when you turn it on, which in turn can lead to injury.

One of the indicators of the quality of a tool is its passive safety

All well-known global tool manufacturers are constantly working to create safe products, conducting numerous tests in laboratories and on construction sites. And if we use automotive terminology, then the safety of the instrument can be divided into passive or active. Thus, the black and yellow color of the instrument, patented by DeWalt, is not only a corporate color that should be more recognizable for branded products and protect them from counterfeits, but also create passive safety. Due to the sharp contrast between the yellow color of the tool and the usually gray color of the construction site, it is impossible to miss it on its way. And since such a tool is usually connected to the mains, there may be a possibility of electric shock if someone steps on the cable with which it is connected.

The innovations in the use of passive safety of the instrument include changing the color of the power cord from the previously used black to red. The change in color does not perform any protective function, but the red color in the mind of a person has always been associated with danger and, therefore, the possibility of stepping on the cord is sharply reduced. For the first time, METABO company began to change the color of the power cord. She also owns the innovation in the application of a non-standard solution for the passive safety of the instrument, that is, its equipment with the METABO CODE system, which encodes the instrument against its unauthorized use. The main idea of this system was the impossibility to include in the work the instrument left for a while by the owner unattended, and, consequently, the injury of the curious.

Personal protective equipment and innovations in their development, guard your health

Another way to increase the safety of the manufactured tool is the method introduced by the BOSCH company for the angle grinder GWS 24 - 230 LVL. The system "Kick Back Stop" applied in the machine allows automatic and instant shutdown of its electric motor when the disk is jammed during operation. And the jamming of the working grinding disc at the machine is the biggest nuisance, since it can lead to the rupture of the wheel and injury to it by fragments of the person working with this tool, as well as those who were nearby. Another type of protection of the service personnel from possible injuries is the inability to turn on the tool without pressing an additional button before starting. This protection ensures the impossibility of self-switching on the tool after it is turned off, when the mains power fails. All of these protections increase the price of the tool being produced, but this price cannot be compared to our health, which they are designed to maintain.

And a special place in the prevention of injuries when working with angle grinders is the mandatory installation of a protective casing before starting work on it, which can save a person from injury, possibly even incompatible with life, if the grinding wheel breaks. Pieces of the broken circle fly with great destructive speed. Therefore, the use of protective equipment, such as goggles, special work gloves and shoes, and possibly a builder's helmets will help preserve your health when working with high-risk tools.

Of course, the use of a helmet to protect against head injury when working with a tool at home can cause sarcastic grins from your family members, but you, of course, understand that it is your head that is being protected, and not someone else's and, therefore, on these smirks, do not pay any attention.

The use of specialized shoes can keep your feet from injury when using a jackhammer or hammer drill when a large piece of concrete falls off your feet. This does not say that it is safe to allow such cases, but it is possible to prevent injury, since these shoes have special socks that can withstand impacts and significant stress on them, protecting the feet. To all this, we can add that some firms that produce specialized footwear equip them with anti-puncture pads, which have increased resistance to high temperatures. In addition, they want the shoes to be lightweight and comfortable. Perhaps the use of all these protective equipment at home for short-term work with the tool is not as necessary as for working professionals,practicing every day and almost never letting go of it.

Protection of a person from electric shock when working with tools

During the implementation of various construction and repair work, it becomes necessary to use an electrified tool. In the process of mixing liquid materials such as paints, solutions, adhesives, various mixers are used. They can be specialized, and sometimes they use ordinary electric drills with a metal mixer fixed in its cartridge. This is where danger may lie in wait for you, since not everyone knows what class of protection his drill has. Although it is listed in the instrument's passport, it usually passes your attention, as if it was written for someone else, and not for you. And this is necessary to know, since the drill of 1 class of protection has a third grounding contact in the plug of the power cord, and it is strictly prohibited to work with this drill without grounding and personal protective equipment (dielectric gloves). With a drill,which has 2 and 3 class of protection, you can work without gloves and in no case should it be grounded. As you can see, the main means of protecting a person from electric shock is grounding, when it is provided for in the passport and dielectric gloves. They are not so expensive to experience the strength of the current.

Special attention should be paid to power cords and cables connecting an electric tool. These are more vulnerable accessories of the tool, as they are under constant influence of the environment. It can be stepped on, put something or dropped something heavy, and this can lead to a short circuit and the consequences of which are not predictable. Although it is quite difficult to damage the electrical cord, since the wires in it are double insulated and nylon braid to prevent breakage, which allows you to pull it. However, with prolonged use, the wires in the cord may burst from frequent bends or be broken, although an external examination cannot detect this. And if it does not work when the power tool is connected to the network, then this may be the very case when the cord is faulty, not the tool. In the event of a power cord malfunction, power tool manufacturers do not recommend twisting on the defective cord, but insist on replacing it with a new cord. The twist made, no matter how well it was performed, cannot replace a complete cable. Therefore, for electrical safety purposes, the twisted cord should be replaced with a new one in the near future.

Respiratory protection from exposure to harmful substances

Performing such work as cutting ceramic tiles with a grinder, working with a perforator to punch holes in concrete or punching a groove in a wall for a hidden laying of an electrical wire, we see how whole clouds of dust are formed and if there is no protection from it, then a large amount of it can be with us in the respiratory organs. The most famous world companies began to produce tools, during the operation of which dust and small particles are collected in special containers with their subsequent cleaning. These containers are mainly equipped with grinders, and rotary hammers and impact drills are equipped with special suction units. For example, BOSCH has launched the PSB 650 RA hammer drill, which is equipped with a microfiltration system. This system allows dust and small particles to be removed from the punching area by sending them to a special waste bin,and pass the air through a microfilter.

Well, if your tool does not have such protection, then we would like to advise you to buy a respirator or, in extreme cases, apply an elementary gauze bandage when performing dusty work. Although not completely, they will still protect your lungs from dust.

Competent use of the tool for its intended purpose will allow you to work without injuries

A very large number of injuries occur when replacing the consumables of an electrified tool. Trying to forcibly stop the grinder when it is turned off by pressing the gear lock button or stopping the rotation of the drill by holding the chuck with your hand, all these attempts lead to injury. Also, when changing a drill or a circle, it is necessary to disconnect the cord from the outlet to avoid spontaneous switching on of the tool.

When using an instrument connected to a compressor, it must also only be used for its intended purpose. Do not use it to remove dust from equipment and clothing, which is very common and results in eye injuries.

Worker clothes should also be in order

Working with tools outside of overalls, you expose yourself to the risk of injury, since old track suits, jackets are not designed to protect your body from hot and large fragments of the processed object. They themselves can cause injury, for example, if ignited by a metal spark. Overalls are produced from a special material that is impregnated with a water-repellent compound. It is non-combustible and can withstand high temperatures and is also resistant to chemicals. Of course, such overalls are not needed at home, but the purchase of an elementary work suit is simply necessary to work with the tool. The above tips will help you avoid major mistakes when working with the instrument and keep your health.