Safety Equipment Information
Safety equipment is needed for all types of industrial work environments. Whether construction safety equipment, like harnesses and safety hearing equipment, or safety lab equipment, OSHA and ANSI have safety regulations regarding all types of safety equipment and what is needed for certain types of work places. While some pieces of safety equipment, such as a first aid kit and fire safety equipment, are needed for all work settings, safety harnesses and equipment on a construction site are individual to that type of industrial safety. Similarly, heavy equipment safety can apply to many other regulations for industrial safety equipment, but public safety equipment and protective equipment for lab safety, like goggles in case of chemical splashes, are unique to those particular work environments. Many safety equipments are similar between various industrial sites, and OSHA and ANSI have regulations regarding specific pieces of equipment and standards for certain work environments, such as confined spaces.
Earplugs and ear muffs are pieces of safety equipment needed to reduce noise in many types of work environments, from a work shop to a processing plant to a construction site. ANSI S3.19-1974 lists regulations for safety hearing equipment to reduce noise for certain work environments. As a result, industrial ear muffs and earplugs all have a noise reduction rating. Whether you need safety equipment to reduce chainsaw noise or to tone down noise from large construction equipment, earplugs or ear muffs are designed to reduce that degree of noise and, specifically for construction safety, some ear muffs can fit around a hard hat.
A safey harness is another piece of industrial safety equipment with specific use regulations by OSHA 29 CFR Part 1926. Safety harnesses are used more often as construction safety equipment, but anchoring a harness properly is partially involved in heavy equipment safety, as well. A safety harness is used only for employee safe guarding and must be secured from above the point of operation by an anchorage or a structure capable of supporting a dead weight of 5400 pounds. If a harness or lanyard is used for in-service loading, it should no longer be used on any employees.
Gas detectors are almost another universal piece of safety equipment, although gas detectors are required to be used in confined work spaces. According to OSHA 29 CFR 1910.146, confinement poses entrapment or keeps workers closer to a hazardous atmosphere and, as asphyxiation is the leading cause of death in confined spaces, a confined workspace requires atmospheric testing before any workers enter. While the last regulation in regards to confined industrial safety is ANSI Z117.1-1989, all regulations updated after 1979 are based on the NIOSH standards from “Working in Confined Spaces,” which specifies provisions for testing of, entry, monitoring, and precautions in confined spaces, from electrical safety equipment shut off and heavy equipment safety to atmospheric testing of confined spaces, as, according to OSHA, poorly ventilated spaces allow for the accumulation of toxic gases. The latest version of ANSI Z117 differentiates different types of confined spaces and specific hazards that result from being close to heavy equipment or testing a confined space for atmospheric safety.
Chemical safety, which includes many types of lab safety equipment, includes personal safety equipment like glasses and goggles and larger safety equipment to handle chemicals. Lab safety equipment includes many metal containers for material handling, including gas cylinders and type 1 and 2 storage cans, which are ribbed and made from heavy-duty, lead-free coated steel. These storage cans are then stored in a metal storage cabinet. In addition, another piece of safety equipment as essential as a first aid kit for chemical safety is an eyewash station. An eyewash station is one piece of protective equipment for lab safety in case of a chemical splash or material getting into a worker’s eyes.
A first aid kit is a universally needed piece of industrial safety equipment. Although the contents of a first aid kit can change with each work site, OSHA requires that someone knowledgeable, such as a company doctor, approve the first aid kit and its contents.
For some types of outdoor or industrial safety, a piece of necessary equipment is a flashlight. Many industrial flashlights come with a bright, highly illuminating bulb, including such types as halogen, krypton, xenon bulbs, LEDs, Luxeon LEDs, and combination LED/incandescent bulbs. One type of flashlight doesn’t work for all work environments, and some models will work better for outdoor work environments and some better for emergencies indoors.
All regulations for safety equipment are specified by OSHA or ANSI and can be found in the respective guides to both standards. Some standards are specific, such as for certain pieces of construction safety equipment, while others are general workplace safety standards.
