Personal protective equipment
Katy Robinson, Senior Project Manager, East Riding of Yorkshire Council
PERSONAL protective equipment, or PPE, is something that most people in the construction, engineering and surveying industries will know all too well. PPE is used to control risks at work, but did you know that it can sometimes do the opposite?
Recent research by the National Association of Women in Construction Yorkshire (NAWIC Yorkshire) found that 42% of women have experiences with ill-fitting PPE that has negatively impacted their career, this can occur in a number of ways; affecting the users’ self-confidence at work, hampering the user’s ability to work effectively, and increasing the user’s risk of accidents on site1.
When you look at the statistics for men, the numbers are much lower, but still a significant amount.
PPE is used to control risks at work, but did you know that it can sometimes do the opposite?Recent research by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) also found that 60% of men have comfortable or perfectly fitting PPE, compared to only 27% of women.
This has highlighted that women are disproportionately being affected by ill-fitting PPE, but it is an industry-wide problem for men and women2.
Examples of ill-fitting PPE could be:
- Oversized safety boots which could result in an increased risk of slips, trips and falls.
- Ill- fitting harnesses which could result in a fall from height.
- Badly fitting high visibility clothing and workwear that can get entangled on plant and machinery, as well as have an increased risk of slips, trips and falls for oversized trousers.
- Oversized gloves that could result in entanglement in machinery.
For years, I wore men’s safety boots at work, suffering with discomfort, blisters, and plenty of incidents of slips and trips. However, it wasn’t until I was provided with female- fit safety boots, that I realised that safety footwear isn’t meant to be uncomfortable. Construction workers spend upwards of 40 hours a week in PPE, so it should be comfortable and it should be well- fitting, for our safety, productiveness, and wellbeing.
For decades, PPE has been designed by utilising the anthropometric data from the 1950s and 1970s of white, male, military personnel.Your first reaction might be, that these workers with ill- fitting PPE should be raising these concerns with their managers. However, the WES research found that 68% of women had raised concerns, but 52% of those concerns were not addressed.
I didn’t raise concerns at the time with my ill- fitting PPE, plus I wasn’t even aware that women’s specific PPE was available. There’s a common belief that PPE is a one size fits all, but workers aren’t one size, therefore one-size safety equipment won’t fit us all, or even a significant proportion of us.
Origins
For decades, PPE has been designed by utilising the anthropometric data from the 1950s and 1970s of white, male, military personnel. Not only is this anthropometric data outdated, as our bodies have changed since that time, but it fails to take into consideration diverse end-users, such as women, ethnic minorities and non-average sized men. The British Standards Institute is currently looking into the standards and data for PPE. I sit on a BSI committee for horizontal topics for PPE which includes the standards for inclusive PPE.
A solution
To put it simply, by placing an importance on the ‘personal’ aspect of personal protective equipment. By ensuring that your employees have access to well- fitting, inclusive PPE, it can improve their health and safety, their productivity, and their feeling of belonging within the company and the industry. After all, there’s nothing welcoming (or safe) about receiving an XL men’s coat when you’re a petite woman.
Inclusive PPE is PPE that takes into consideration the user’s individual requirements (sizing), and their ‘protected characteristics’ (gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, etc.)
Some examples include:
- Offering female- fit PPE too, instead of just the generic men’s and unisex.
- Providing PPE to those workers that require PPE when pregnant.
- Having a variety of sizing and shape options available for different items of PPE.
- Ensuring that female- fit safety boots are available too.
Inclusive PPE is on the market, but NAWIC Yorkshire’s research found that nearly 60% of employers are not providing it, therefore resulting in a significant number of workers in the construction industry having to suffer the effects of ill-fitting PPE, as highlighted previously.
In the industry
The PPE campaign I am involved in aims to address widespread inequalities with PPE provision and design among minority groups across the construction industry, and beyond.
There’s a common belief that PPE is a one size fits all, but workers aren’t one size.There are plenty of ways to get involved with the PPE campaign:
- Action within your own organisations to make inclusive PPE available to employees.
- Mandating the provision of inclusive PPE with your supply chain.
- Join us in lobbying the government and the Health and Safety Executive to take action to address the inequalities.
The issues with PPE are widespread, not just in the construction sector, but across every industry that requires PPE, even female-dominated industries such as healthcare. Ultimately, the problem will not be fully solved until the regulatory agencies for health and safety take this seriously and tighten up the standards on PPE to accommodate inclusive PPE.
The construction industry is renowned for being reactive to change, instead of being proactive and preventing issues from happening. We have an opportunity to change this and lead the way in the provision of inclusive PPE, improving safety and equality within our industry.
Katy Robinson, Senior Project Manager, East Riding of Yorkshire Council
Katy.Robinson@eastriding.gov.uk
1 ‘ Women’s PPE in the Construction Industry’ (NAWIC Yorkshire, 2023). See https://www.nawicyorkshire.co.uk/campaigns/womens-ppe
2 PPE Survey Results 2024 (WES, 2024). See https://www.wes.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PPESurvey-Results-2024-WES.pdf