The Pros and Cons of PPE Disposable Workwear

When you hear about workwear one naturally thinks about formals or some specific workwear that are used for those specific jobs. Formal wear is somehow synonymous with the workwear and most of the time and it’s true. But not every workplace is suitable for wearing the formals.

You might have seen people working at construction sites, manufacturing plants, warehouses, jobs like electricians, painters, the one thing that is common at these workplaces is that most of these jobs require strenuous work on a day-to-day basis. Sometimes the employees even have to work in the not-so-safe kind of environments.

It’s appears like getting those clothes dirty while doing the work. You can easily imagine the job of a painter and understand what his workwear will look like after completing a day at his job. Not only these workplaces make your clothes look far from tidy they impose some pretty obvious health hazards.

To stay safe and well protected these workplaces has a basic requirement of a specific kind of workwear like PPE that offers protection to the workers. It is advisable to use personal protective clothing while working in unsafe environments. PPE safeguards you but there are some necessary rules and regulations to follow for its overall effectiveness.

Understanding PPE and its Usability

Asbestos removal is one such harmful work where the use of Asbestos PPE is required. Earlier in some of the constructions asbestos was preferably used due to its insulating properties. Later people came to know about the risk imposed on their health by asbestos.

It was found that if asbestos is present in the air even in traces, it’s extremely hazardous because of its carcinogenic nature. After realizing the harmful effects of asbestos, it became evident that it should necessarily be removed from all the construction where it was used earlier.

Now that presented the tough task of removing asbestos safely from the homes and offices where it was used in the walls to provide insulation.

PPE Disposable Workwear

One thing to be assured of is that any kind of hazardous work should be done only after following the proper guidelines and safeguarding the health of the workers first. But before this, a proper risk assessment needs to be conducted at these places.

Risk assessments help us to understand the level of toxicity present in the atmosphere. Only then the relative accurate preventive measures can be successfully taken. Use of personal protective equipment should be your last resolve. Even when PPE is used its effectiveness depends on the level of asbestos present in the outside environment and proper fitting of PPE.

The Pros

PPE disposable workwear is very useful in some jobs like painting, working in the presence of toxic chemical fumes, and in case of any hygienically sensitive work. Disposable PPE is good for single use. Different types of PPE are useful in asbestos removal work.

Dust mask and respirators are useful in preventing the wearer from inhaling harmful dust. These are economical and available in a wide range. These safeguard the workers during all the cleaning work at the construction site. These masks prevent workers to inhale the dust arising from the brick, wood, silica, sweeping, etc.

A face fit testing kit is used to check if the provided respirator will be a perfect fit or not. It’s an important tool because if there’s any space left between the respirator and the face of the wearer, air will easily pass through it and expose the wearer to the contaminated air.

For the safe removal of asbestos from the work site to secured landfill disposal cell asbestos removal bags are used. Asbestos carrying waste deeply vary in characteristics so their disposal is done in accordance with that.

The Cons

Any disposable PPE is not easy to dispose of. These are easy to use and appear to be a good substitute of long-term use PPE in terms of costs and maintenance. But these contribute to the ever-increasing pollution which is not good for the environment.

If you take into consideration the costs factor then also maintaining and using products that are not disposable is beneficial in the long run.

On an ending note

If you have ever been to any construction site you know what exactly that place looks like. Mostly filled with dust and it’s even difficult to breathe in there. On the other hand, it’s quite dangerous to be there while the construction work is going on.

The risk of getting hurt from any falling material or by inhaling the fine dust that is present on those sites one can develop health issues. Despite there are so many cons of PPE disposable workwear but it does offer great protection if the risk level is quite low and within the permissible limits. Just make sure that the provided PPE fits properly.

By reading this piece you might have acknowledged how disastrous some workplaces can be and how difficult it’s to work in there. But as a matter of fact, someone has to do these jobs too. So, with proper protection and safety, the tough work of asbestos removal can be done.