welcome to the series of lectures on principles of construction management and what we have
been talking about is construction safety and we have gone through material which says
that well of course an accident is unacceptable we should also understand that in case there
is an accident all efforts should be made that there is minimum loss of life and property
so coming to this effort which is concentrated on the minimizing of life minimizing of injuries
to workers the personal protective equipment which is the subject matter of discussion
today place a very very important role so what we will do today is talk about the
different personal protective equipment that is used and what is the roles of the employer
and what is the role of the employees and so on in our discussion before we start our
discussion on the ppe of the personal protective equipment let me acknowledge the occupational
safety and health administration whose booklet is largely the basis of our discussion today
and its very interesting to note that as part of this booklet it is clearly written that
material contained in this publication is in public domain and may be reproduced fully
or partially without permission source credit is requested but not required whether it is
requested or not i would like to acknowledge the effort made by osha in this direction
and this is a important a very interesting reference and i would expect hope that some
of you find it useful please do go through that
so now coming to our discussion the first step as far as minimizing the damage due to
an accident is concerned is controlling the hazard at its source is the best way to protect
your employees so if somehow we are able to ensure that the accident doesnt happen the
hazard is controlled at the site itself where it is then the employees are exposed to the
minimum danger now depending on the hazard of the workplace conditions use of engineering
or work practice controls is recommended to manage or eliminate the hazards to the greatest
extent possible so elimination of the hazard at its origin is the best thing to do and
we have to take engineering and work practice controls and that is what has been part of
our discussion so far employees are however in addition required to provide personal protective
equipment ppe to their employees and ensure its use
so in the event of an accident in the event of the injury to a worker the employers cannot
take the defense that the worker did not use the ppe properly it is the employers responsibility
to not only provide the personal protective equipment but also ensure that the worker
is appropriately and adequately trained for that purpose so what is personal protective
equipment it is born on the person to minimize the exposure to the hazards and the injury
so we must remember that the ppe is not an accident prevention measure it is basically
a measure to ensure that the injury is minimized it is a measure to ensure that the exposure
is minimized now here is an example of what ppe is all
about so if we see here so we need to protect the head we need to protect the eyes the respiratory
tract that is the nose we need to protect the faces such we need to protect the ears
there is protective clothing which affords overall protection we need to protect hands
feet and so on so it depends on what kind of a hazard that you are working with so depending
on that you can wear hardhats goggles respirators hearing devices gloves safety boots full body
suits safety belts and so on so this is a classification of what these different ppe
can be now this is just an example of what a good site would do even when somebody comes
for a site inspection or a visit something like a hard hat a jacket and gloves and a
walkie talkie is part of a kit that is kept ready for all the visitors so these visitors
they come take this wear this on the person before they go to the site usually there has
to be a small pep talk which trains or educates the visitors as to how to handle these equipments
or how to handle any of these gear now coming to the employers responsibilities
the first step obviously is to perform a hazard assessment of the workplace to identify and
control the physical and health hazards we have already talked about in the previous
lectures that as far as the construction site is concerned it depending on where it is located
the kind of hazards that a person the worker working there or a visitor is likely to be
expose to a different if its a marine site or a site in the middle of the river or it
is a high rise building it could be a tunnel depending on the kind of environment that
hazards involve a different and thats why the first step is to perform a hazard assessment
of the workplace and find out what are the hazards that are involved and then only we
can make a decision as to what is the kind of ppe that would be necessary so identify
and provide appropriate ppe to the employees train the employees in the use of ppe and
how to take care of it so for example if its a helmet or a jacket
or gloves its not enough that these are simply provided the employees must be able to use
them and they should know how to take care of them maintain the ppe including replacing
worn and damage ppe so there so obviously the construction sites could work for several
months several years sometime and therefore something like a glove or something like the
jackets they may need replacement for whatever reason and its the employers responsibility
to ensure that they are replaced when requested periodically review update and evaluate the
effectiveness of the ppe and safety programs this goes without saying that having made
an assessment once is not enough this kind of an exercise has to be carried out periodically
as part of a safety officers job now coming to what the employees responsibilities
are the first responsibility is to properly wear the ppe the second responsibility is
attend training sessions on ppe those of us who have travelled in air would know that
there is always a standard exercise which tells the passengers as to how to handle safety
belt how to handle a life jacket and so on so its the responsibility of all workers to
make sure that they attend training sessions involving the use of ppe in certain cases
its trivial and therefore it may be done once in a year or maybe once in two years or at
the time of induction alone but in certain cases when specialized equipments are involved
this kind of training is required to be imparted periodically and the workers must take it
seriously clean and maintain the ppe most of the time what is done in sites is
that the employer issues the ppe to the workers and its their possibility to basically maintain
it so its their look out that the take care of the equipment issued to them clean it and
maintain it and if it requires replacement or repair they should inform the supervisor
about it and then its employers responsibility to make sure that it is appropriately either
repaired or replaced now coming to hazard assessment what we have to do is to identify
the physical and health hazards at the workplace and potential hazards have to be classified
into the following categories of course these are perhaps not exhaustive but at least its
indicative impact electric penetration compression chemical heat or cold harmful dust light or
optical radiation and biological and so on so depending on the different phases of construction
different types of construction there could be different hazards that will come into play
as far as a construction site is concerned we must keep in mind that construction sites
need not always be new construction sites there can always be work taken up in an existing
refinery or an existing atomic power plant and in that case the construction itself though
it could be civil engineering but the work should be protected against any possible radiation
and all that we have to carry out the hazard assessment very carefully taking into account
the particular construction site or the particular job that we are executing
now the workplace should be periodically reassessed for any changes in the conditions equipment
or operating procedures that could affect occupational hazards so this assessment is
not a onetime exercise but as i have also said earlier that it is a periodic assessment
is carried out continuing the suitability of existing ppe including an evaluation of
its condition and age should be included in this reassessment so its important to ensure
that the ppe is adequate and is of a certain standard that affords the right kind of protection
and thats something which you will come to when we discuss the details of the different
ppe now coming to to the selection of ppe the occupational safety and health administration
that is osha requires that the ppe should be meeting or be equivalent to standards developed
by the american national standards institute some of those standards are given here for
eye and face protection head protection food protection hand protection and so on there
is nothing sacrosanct about the american national standards institute but what is being said
is that once a ppe is being procured and is being used is being issued it should confirm
to certain standards whether its american or australian or indian that doesnt matter
it depends on the client it depends on the contractor what is part of the contract this
has to be laid down and defined before the job is in fact awarded so this has to be part
of the contract document that well as far as this particular job is concerned the contractor
shall provide to its workers ppe conforming to such and such standards
so now coming to a specific types of ppe or the specific equipment that protect different
parts of a body lets first talk of head protection we must remember that a head injury is a very
very serious injury and can impair an employee for life or it can even be fatal therefore
wearing a safety helmet or a hard hat is one of the easiest ways to protect an employee
from a head injury what should be the functional requirements of a hard hat it should resist
|penetration by objects so if there is a falling object that hits the helmet it should resist
penetration from that it should absorb the shock of a blow it should be water resistant
and slow burning and there should be clear instructions explaining proper adjustments
and replacement of the suspension and headband we will talk about these qualities once again
a little later now hard hats must have a hard outer shell
and a shock absorbing lining that incorporates a headband in straps that suspend the shell
from two point five four centimeters to three point one eight centimeters away from the
head that is an inch to a inch in a quarter from the head there can be obviously classifications
of these hard hats and one classification is a b and c where class a hard hats provide
an impact and penetration resistance along with limited voltage protection up to two
thousand two hundred volts in certain cases which is called class b hard hats they provide
the highest level of protection against electrical hazards with high voltage shock and burn protection
upto twenty thousand volts and they also provide protection for impact and penetration hazards
by flying or falling objects a class c hard hats provide lightweight comfort and impact
protection but offer no protection from the electrical hazards
what we have to keep in mind that even though as far as this set of lectures or series of
lectures is concerned is largely concentrated on civil engineering examples and the civil
engineering background a construction site is not a civil engineering site alone there
are several examples where there is very very serious electrical engineering operation in
progress equipment erection equipment operations and so on and so forth and therefore as a
construction manager one has to be aware of certain things which are not necessarily in
the domain of one engineering or the other so i would leave it to you to find out whether
safety engineering is a subject itself or not and how many universities offer degrees
or diplomas is something called safety engineering now continuing from our continuing our discussion
with head protection this pictures here show the typical internal structure of a hard hat
and the different types of hard hat and this is the suspension that we are talking about
the adjustable chin strap and worker should know how to handle it so it should not happen
that for some reason the worker was wearing the helmet but it gets blown away and the
worker is head by a falling object these are the kind of possibilities which have to be
prevented it has also to be ensured that this strap does not wear out over a period of time
or a somehow cut at some place or the other so then the helmet does not afford any protection
and that is something which we need to educate the workers about and they have to be careful
about it when maintaining this helmet now coming to the eye and face protection
the hazard includes flying particles molten metal liquid chemicals acids of caustic liquids
chemical gases of vapours potentially infected material or potentially harmful light radiation
what is specific examples of this could be welding operations where protective shades
act as filters and thus the intensity of light or radiant energy produced by welding cutting
or brazing operations is reduced so this is how we try to protect the eyes in a welding
operation as far as laser operations are concern laser safety goggles should protect these
specific wavelength of the laser and must be of sufficient optical density for the energy
involved so before the procurement of the protective equipment is made one has to drop
their specifications depending upon the actual hazards and their details those hazards and
details need to be provided to the safety inspector by the competent engineers and then
together they decide what should be the specification of the ppe to be procured and used at a particular
site continuing with our eye and face protection
measures this is basically just a chart which says filter lenses for protection against
radiant energy depending on the kind of operations that are involved there are different thicknesses
and protective shades we select the laser safety glasses in a similar manner depending
on the intensity involved so this here are pictures about the laser safety goggles of
the face shield and the welders helmet with all the details and these websites and the
internet will help you get more information about the technical details involved so please
remember that design of these ppe is also an important subject that needs to be studied
coming to hearing protection that is your ears obviously the louder the noise the shorter
the exposure time before hearing protection is required so for a certain amount of noise
which we are all expose to and we tolerate in our daily lives beyond the threshold is
when we require the hearing protection and depending on the level of that noise the duration
for which we may be permitted to be exposed that noise is also different here is the permissible
noise exposure and durations in hours and the sound level in decibels as the sound level
in decibels increases the duration per day in hours which you can be expose to reduces
so that is something which we need to keep in mind and beyond this point we need to provide
appropriate hearing protection and hearing protectors worn by employees must reduce an
employees noise exposure to within acceptable limits provided in this table
so that is how we evaluate functional performance of hearing protection now this is the ear
muffs for hearing protection and appendix b of twenty nine cfr nineteen ten point nine
five details the information on methods to estimate the attenuation effective of hearing
protectors based in devices noise reduction ratio or the noise reduction rating manufacturers
of hearing protection devices must display the devices nrr on their product packaging
so these are the kind of stipulations that are made out when we are manufacturing the
ppe and somebody is buying them some types of hearing protection includes single use
earplugs made of waxed cotton foam silicone rubber or fiberglass wool pre formed or molded
ear plugs or ear muffs which require a perfect seal around the hear so when it comes to periodic
maintenance some body has to ensure that the ears of the worker or indeed being sealed
so coming to the handed arm protection potential hazards could include skin absorption of harmful
substances chemicals or thermal burns electrical dangerous bruises abrasions cuts punctures
fractures and amputations in the extreme case the factors that may influence the selection
of ppe gloves for this work place would be the type of chemicals handled nature of contact
total immersion splash etcetera duration of contract area requiring protection whether
it is only the fingers or the hands or the forearm or the entire arm grip requirement
in terms of dry wet and oily thermal protection size and comfort abrasion and resistance requirements
so this is how we try to quantify the performance of a ppe which is suppose to afford protection
to the hands and arms so coming to more details of this gloves leather canvas or metal mesh
gloves fabric or coated fabric gloves chemical or liquid resistant gloves insulating rubber
gloves are some of the gloves that are commonly used in construction sites
these are pictures of some of these gloves the metal mesh gloves or the chemical resistant
gloves or the insulating rubber gloves and i would encourage you to look at the internet
and try to get a better idea and an understanding of the different kinds of protective equipment
that are available not only for the gloves not only as gloves or hand protection but
also goggles and all that now coming to body protection in addition to cuts and radiations
some examples of workplace hazards that could cause bodily injury could be temperature extremes
hot splashes from molten metals or other liquids potential impacts from tools machinery and
materials and hazardous chemicals and examples of the protection could include laboratory
coats coveralls vests jackets aprons surgical gowns and full body suits coming to some of
their specific types of body protection available it could be paper like fiber used for disposable
suits that provides protection against dust and splashes it could be treated wool or cotton
which adapts well to changing temperatures is comfortable and fire resistant and protects
against dust abrasions and rough and irritating surfaces it could be duck which is a closely
woven cotton fabric that protects against cuts and bruises when handling heavy sharp
or rough materials leather is often used to protect against dry heat and flames rubber
and rubberized fabrics neoprene and plastics protect against certain chemicals and physical
hazards when chemical and physical hazards are present
check with the clothing manufacturer to ensure that the material selected will provide adequate
protection against this specific hazard what we must emphasize once again even though i
have talked about it when we are talking about safety in the initial stages a construction
site is definitely hazardous place that does not mean that construction will not take place
its important that we understand the hazards involved take appropriate measures to ensure
that even though its hazard has place no injury happens of course the best thing to happen
is no accident happens but the least we can try to do is to ensure that the injuries are
minimized now coming to safety belts lifelines and lanyards this is what the picture looks
like for a safety belt and the text that is given here i will just quickly read it lifeline
safety belts and lanyards shall be used only for employees safe guarding they should not
be used for any other purpose any life line safety belt or lanyard actually subjected
to in service loading as distinguished from static load testing shall be immediately removed
from service and shall not be used again for employees safe guarding
so if this particular ppe has been actually subjected to some loads that should be replaced
it should not continue to be used life line shall be secured above the point of operation
to an anchorage or a structural member capable of supporting a minimum dead weight of five
thousand four hundred pounds and life line used on rocks scaling operations or in areas
where life line may be subjected to cutting or abrasion shall be minimum of seven eighth
of an inch wire core manila rope for all of the lifeline applications a minimum of three
fourth of an inch manila or equivalent with a minimum breaking strength of five thousand
four hundred pounds shall be used so the language used here is shall be used or it shall have
certain specifications shall be immediately removed
so this is how the specification are returned and its important or it is imperative on the
contractor to follow it letter and spirit continuing with our discussion on safety belts
and life lines safety belt lanyards shall be a minimum of half inch nylon or equivalent
with a maximum length to provide for a fall of no greater than six feet and the rope shall
have a nominal breaking strength of five thousand four hundred pounds all safety belts and lanyard
hardware shall be drop forged or pressed steel cadmium plated in accordance with type one
class b plating is specified in the federal specifications such as such and surface shall
be smooth and free of sharp edges all safety belts and lanyard hardware except rivets shall
be capable of withstanding a tensile loading of four thousand pounds without cracking breaking
or taking a permanent deformation so obviously we are using in this discussion
today the fps system we are talking of inches we are talking of pounds and i am leaving
it to you to do a small exercise of converting these to the standard s i units and of course
the fact that they have been borrowed largely from american standards is the reason why
these have been retained in inches and pounds now coming to the foot and leg protection
leggings protect the lower legs and feet from heat hazard such as molten metals of welding
sparks metatarsal guards protect the instep area from impact and compression made of aluminum
steel fiber or plastic these guards may be strapped to the outside of shoes toe guards
fit over the toes of regular shoes to protect the toes form impact and compression hazards
they may be made of steel aluminum or plastic combinations of foot and shin guards protect
the lower legs and feet safety shoes have impact resistance toes and heat resistance
soles that protects the feet against hot work surfaces common in roofing paving and hot
metal industries the metal in soles of some safety shoes also protect against puncture
wounds there are a special purpose shoes electrically
conductive shoes provide protection against the buildup of static electricity electric
hazard safety toe shoes are non conductive and will prevent the various feet form various
completing an electrical circuit to the ground foundry shoes insulating the feet from extreme
heat of molten metal keep the hot metal from lodging in the shoe eyelets tongues and other
parts these snug fitting leather or leather substitute shoes have leather or rubber soles
and rubber heels and these are pictures of some of the shoes
and foot protection equipment which are often used in the industry now coming to the training
of employees about ppe the employers are required to train each employee who must use ppe and
the employees must be trained to know at least the following when ppe is necessary what ppe
is necessary how to properly put on takeoff adjust and wear the ppe and the limitations
of the ppe the employees have to be told and educated that wearing the ppe does not protect
them from all hazards there are limitations depending on the type of ppe being used proper
care maintenance useful life and disposal of the equipment that has to be a part of
the employee training the employer must document the training of each employee required to
wear or use the ppe by preparing a certification program and the name of each employee trained
the date of training a clear identification of the subject of the certification so this
is more like record keeping for that is something which is very important for a construction
site which may have a thousand people working so its important that as part of the induction
program before the workers are allow to go to the actual construction site they go through
a basic induction program which may cover just the fundamentals of protection and then
have more specialized programs and training sessions depending on the actual environment
where different workers are working with this we come to an end of our discussion today
and you might find some of these references useful in understanding the subject matter
cover today better and i look forward to seeing you again in this course
thank you