Personal protective equipment, also known as PPE, is safety clothing, protective eyewear, masks, or any other protective gear or material designed to protect a person's body from infection or injury. The primary hazards addressed by protective equipment include heat, chemical, physical, and biohazards. Heat injuries are those that result from overexposure to the sun; chemical injuries are infections caused by exposure to cleaning products, solvents, pesticides, and more. Physical risks include traumatic brain injury, broken bones, cuts, and broken muscles. Biohazards include exposure to contaminated medical supplies or biological weapons.
One of the most common materials used in the creation of protective equipment is polyurethane foam. The foam is primarily created to protect workers from heat damage, but it has also been found to be quite effective in containing spills of various liquids. Some popular types of foam employed in personal protective equipment are ear muffs, masks, gloves, gowns, sleeves, and more. A popular type of personal protective equipment that is often not considered hazardous is chemical safety vests or sleeves.
As with any type of protective gear or clothing, protective equipment should always be worn and properly cared for to provide the best protection. Protective equipment should be worn at all times, even when there is no present hazard. Wearing the right protective garments at all times means that there is a greater chance of remaining uninfected while working. It is also important to have the correct protective equipment for the job that one is performing. For example, it is not necessarily safe to wear full face masks if one is working in a food processing plant as the heat from the processing unit could cause the nose to become contaminated and spread a pathogen to the rest of the body.
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