What is PPE?
PPE stands for Personal Protection Equipment. A piece of personal protection equipment is a piece of equipment or means of protection that a person can wear or hold as protection against one or more hazards that can form a threat to health or safety.
The kinds of protection equipment available are:
- Hearing protection
- Eye protection
- Protection against falling from a height
- Head protection
- Protection for the face or part of the face
- Protective clothing
- Respiratory protection
- Foot and leg protection to prevent slipping
- Hand and arm protection
- Protective equipment to prevent drowning and assist with flotation
- Means to protect against the risks of electricity
Personal protection equipment can be divided into three categories: I (simple), II and III (complex).
Category I
This category consists of protection equipment for which the manufacturer assumes that the user is capable of forming a judgement about the purpose of this equipment and how it must be used.
Examples are: gloves, sunglasses, boots, headgear, etc.
Category II
This category consists of protection equipment for which the manufacturer has to hand over an EU declaration of conformity after the protection equipment has received EU type-approval.
Category III
For the protection equipment that is classified under this category, the manufacturer has to hand over an EU declaration of conformity after the protection equipment has received EU type-approval and manufacturing checks are carried-out.
Examples are: breathing equipment, equipment for extreme temperatures, protection against chemicals, etc.