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Injuries Related to Personal Protective Equipment

Personal protective equipment is designed to protect a worker against the environmental risks that are part of a particular job. For example, construction workers are required to wear helmets, goggles, gloves and other protective gear to prevent injury resulting from falling or dispersed debris. There are many severe injuries due to the improper usage of protective equipment, many of which resulted from not using the proper equipment at all.

  1. Concussion

    • Concussions and other closed head injuries are common in professions that deal with falling debris. Construction workers and lumberjacks are two jobs that may involve heavy materials falling from great heights. Helmets and safe work habits are the best prevention for this type of injury, but injuries often result anyway because of worker wearing their helmets improperly or wearing helmets that don't adequately meet the safety requirements for the working environment. Concussions, which involve swelling and bruising of the brain inside the skull, can be serious, especially if a worker has multiple concussions.

    Blindness

    • Eye injuries are always a risk when a worker is around sparks, flying debris, optical radiation and corrosive liquids. If the injury is not treated immediately, permanent eye loss and blindness can result. Eye protection helps lower this risk, but a sharp object flying at a high rate of speed may still penetrate the goggle material and even cause goggle shards to enter the eye. If the eye protection is worn too loosely, liquids can slip in over them and enter the eye during an accident. A Kimberley-Clark professional survey showed that eye protection was the most problematic category for personal protective equipment with three out of five eye injuries resulting from a lack of eye protection or the use of the wrong type of eye protection for the job.

    Foot Punctures/Fractures

    • Foot injuries are common in hazardous job sites, because a foot can be caught in machinery or punctured by sharp debris on the ground. Steel-toed boots are very useful for construction workers and other professionals who work with powerful equipment or have a significant amount of falling debris and sharp debris that can damage the foot on impact. While proper foot protection helps prevent puncture wounds, it is limited in the protection it can provide against an equipment-related injury when the foot is in danger of being crushed. Electric shocks are also a problem in environments where there is significant static discharge and a lack of insulation in footwear.

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