Personal protective equipment keeps techs healthy active and profitable

Oct. 21, 2014
Personal protective equipment keeps you healthy, active and on the job so you can consistently earn a living. It may also protect your family from contaminants you carry home.
Figure 1

Although a look at personal protective equipment (PPE) (Fig 1) is not the most glamorous subject, it can help increase your productivity and long-term earnings in the industry. How, you may ask? PPE helps keep you healthy, active and on the job so you can consistently earn a living. It may also even protect your loved ones from harm caused by the contaminants that you carry home.

So what are some of the PPE that should be considered? Probably the first ones that come to mind are the most obvious — eye protection and respirators. Most technicians put on glasses when using a grinder (at least most of the time), but what about when mixing paint, or when your partner in the next stall is using a grinder, or welding? How about when you are under a vehicle, or working on air-conditioning? We should begin to see that a good argument can be made for eye protection to be worn at all times in the work area. And what about respirators? Even to this day I see technicians in paint booths without a respirator of any kind, or sanding without a particle mask. And the answer is yes, even though you are spraying "waterborne" paint, a respirator is needed.

Take it from an old technician who started in this profession in 1965: You need to protect yourself at all times. Even that short trip into the booth for only a minute or two without PPE can add up over the years. And it's not only the obvious needs or hazards such as we have been talking about. Ask some older techs if they have ringing in their ears (tinnitus); I am sure that most of them will either say yes, or they will admit to some hearing loss. If you only start thinking about protecting yourself years after you have started working, by then the damage may have already started.

For your safety and wellbeing, then, we will run through details of most of the PPEs such as eye protection, respirators, gloves, hearing protection, paint suits, boots, and work uniforms. We may omit some such as eye protection when using UV cured paint, or alkaline protective clothing when replacing a cracked lithium ion battery. While we will plan to cover most of the common everyday PPEs that will be encountered in the collision repair industry, bear in mind that each time you learn a new technique or a new product is introduced into the workplace, the proper personal protective equipment for that situation should be used.

Which PPEs to use
The MSDS, or Material Safety Data Sheet, must — by law — be provided to the shop every time a hazardous material is delivered to the shop. In this multi-section document, there is a vast array of information about the product in question. But for the purposes of this discussion, Section 8 (Exposure Controls/Personal Protection) of the document should be studied. This section will tell not only of the risks of exposure to the product, but also how to protect oneself from that risk. While the list of equipment needed for protecting yourself will be easy to find, the actual use of that equipment is not listed. Therefore, not only knowing which equipment is needed to protect yourself, but also receiving the proper training for use of that equipment is necessary.

Eye protection
Eye protection comes in many forms, each having a very specific use; but the most common item is safety glasses with side shields. This type of eye protection will shield the worker from flying debris such as dust and smaller objects like grinding particles. To an extent safety glasses will also protect your eyes from liquid, but when the tech encounters a liquid hazard, such as mixing paint, a face shield or goggles should be worn. Safety glasses should also be worn under the face shield to protect the eye itself from being struck by heavy or falling objects.

Welding helmets, with the correct darkening shield, should be worn at all times when welding. Even though you may see people on TV welding with only a helmet and closing their eyes before the arc is struck, the closed eye will not safely protect the eye from a welding strike and "welder’s burn" of the eye can occur. Again, safety glasses should be worn under the welder’s helmet.

Different equipment is needed for plasma torch/gas welding eye protection Though the light of a plasma torch and gas welding is less than MIG or TIG welding, there is still a chance of damaging your eyes and so the proper eye protection should be used. The proper shielding shade can be found in the MSDS for the equipment used, or in the equipment’s manufacturer recommendation.

Respirators
Respirators also come in many different types for specific jobs. For example, particle respirators (N95) (Fig 2) which, as the name implies, filter out particles in the air from sanding, will not filter out either mist or acids. For protection from these, an air purifier respirator (Fig 3) should be used. These purification type respirators come in full face coverage or partial face coverage. Still, they have their limitations, the greatest of which being that the active purifying agent in them can become inactive, putting the operator at risk.

The next class of respirators is the air supply (Fig 4) type, which supplies fresh air to the operator at all times. The clean air is piped into the mask at a positive pressure, with a full face hood which keeps any contaminants from coming into the mask. It is often said that the safest paint respirator is the full face fresh air supply respirator, because no contaminants reach the painter.  

Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4

Though the respirator seems like a very simple device to use, it does require both testing and training on its proper use. The proper use of a respirator can be found on the 3M website, along with the proper way to put the mask on and how to perform a seal test once it is on. To know which size mask should be used and to determine that it is working properly, a respirator test should be performed each year.

Air purification masks do not have an off switch, so if left in the open air, they will continue to operate, thus reducing their working life. They should be stored in an airtight container when not in use.

Figure 5

Gloves
Though we most often think of gloves as those used with painting, various protective gloves guard technicians against a great number of problems. Work gloves protect us from cuts and scrapes, and now come with anti-vibration devices in the material. A technician who is approaching years of hard work with a DA can be saved from joint and ligament injuries with the use of good work gloves. Welding gloves protect from burns, and with the long cuff (gauntlet) they also protect us from sparks getting onto the skin. Heavy chemical resistant gloves protect us from paint chemicals when cleaning equipment, and nitrile gloves help when applying wax and grease removers on vehicles (Fig 5).

Hearing protection
This is one of the easiest PPE to underrate, because hearing damage is cumulative. That is, even though the noise is not loud all at one time (such as from gunfire), even lower but persistent noise (such as the whirring of an air compressor) can, over time, do great damage to your hearing. The hearing loss also has such a slow onset that the damage is not noted until it is too late.  Protective devices range from simple ear plugs, which are placed in the ear canal to block the noise, to ear muffs. And the two can be used together if needed.

So when should hearing protection be used? When you are standing at a normal distance from a co-worker and you must raise your voice for them to hear you, then the noise level is hazardous, and hearing protection should be used.

Paint suit
Paint suits should be worn for the protection of both the painter and those he or she lives with. The painter's suit (Fig 6) will protect the painter from paint chemicals when used, but will others as well after the painter finishes work. Suppose after painting all day a painter goes home and hugs his family members.  If the tech worked without a protective paint suit, all the chemical contaminant is transferred to them. But the painter who uses and then removes a paint suit doesn’t give the family “chemical hugs” when he comes home. Paint suits also protect the vehicle from dust or other problems that may be on the painter’s clothing when he or she enters the paint booth.

Protective clothing
Other PPEs such as steel-toed boots (Fig 7), welding shin and ankle guards  (which guard against heavy steel hitting skin and sparking), fire-retardant work uniforms, and even pants without cuffs all help protect against sparks and spills.

Personal protective equipment may be unglamorous to discuss and the training may seem boring. Some equipment can seem cumbersome and difficult to use from time-to-time, and it might seem convenient to believe the threat to your body and health is not really so great. In fact, some of you may get away with no harm when PPE's are not used. But not using the proper PPE just once might also cause serious damage, which could have been prevented, and sadly, could lead to a life of disability and discomfort.  

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Figure 6 Figure 7

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