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Guide to Assessing Fire Resistant Clothing

Flame-resistant clothing helps protect workers from burn-related injuries in the event of a sudden electrical flash or fire. Electrical or arc flashes occur mostly in places where electrical charge stations or electrical machinery is used. Assessing the workplace prior to purchasing flame-resistant clothing is one way to help you choose clothing that will provide enough protection for employees.

  1. Workplace Assessment

    • OSHA regulations have been established to help you determine if flame-resistant clothing is required in your workplace. These regulations also help in assessing the degree of flame resistance needed. OSHA’s 1910.269 Maintenance Standard encourages assessing the workplace to decide if flame-resistant clothing is necessary to ensure employee safety when working around electrically charged equipment, flammable liquids or when working near machinery that could cause a fire. OSHA’s 1910.132 General Duty Clause requires managers to inspect the workplace and document potential risk for injury as a result of fire or electrical flash. If there are sufficient risks, employees must be given flame-resistant clothing to wear. OSHA’s 1910.119 Process Safety Management Regulation requires the inspection of manufacturing processes to determine if protective clothing is necessary.

    Performance Standards

    • ASTM International (formally known as the American Society for Testing and Materials) creates and maintains performance standards for flame-resistant clothing. These standards include arc ratings, which measure the amount of incident energy it takes for an arc flash (sudden burst of flame) to melt through protective material, thermal protective performance tests, vertical flame tests and flash fire mannequin tests. When assessing flame-resistant clothing, review arc ratings and performance test results and recommendations provided by ASTM so you can choose the most appropriate clothing for your employees based on workplace assessments and risk documentation.

    Chemically Treated Fabrics

    • In order to provide protection from arc flashes and fire, protective clothing fibers are chemically treated through ammonia curing or saturating fibers in multiple chemicals. Both natural and synthetic fibers are used to manufacture protective clothing. When choosing flame-resistant clothing, keep in mind that clothing should not ignite or continue to burn if an employee is standing close to the ignition site. Outdoor protective clothing should protect from arc flashes and should also be waterproof. When laundering flame-resistant clothing, follow the manufacturer's recommendations to ensure that the clothing will retain its resistance to flame after multiple washings.

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