From the course: Understanding Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

PPE is personal

From the course: Understanding Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

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PPE is personal

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- [Instructor] Personal protective equipment, or PPE, is personal. There is no one size fits all product and there is no one solution that fits all situations. The selection of PPE needs to be thought out. The actual hazards of your particular environment need to be assessed so that the proper PPE can be selected and matched to your specific situation. In many jurisdictions around the world, this assessment is the employer's responsibility and occupational safety and health professionals will talk about having a competent person assigned to perform this assessment. A competent person is someone that is both qualified by way of knowledge, experience, or education and is authorized by the employer to make these kinds of decisions. Now regulatory issues are complex subjects and regulations can vary drastically from one jurisdiction to the next. So it's important for you to understand that this is not a course about regulatory compliance or employer responsibilities. That's really a different issue. It's also important for you to understand that no single course could possibly envision every scenario that might exist and advise you on what PPE you need to use. What I do want to accomplish here though is to give everyone a basic understanding of what PPE is, what it does, and what some of its limitations are. I think people everywhere can find themselves in situations where this basic understanding can be helpful. Situations where there is no employer to perform an assessment, like volunteer efforts, or work jurisdictions that lack a regulatory environment. And there are situations that don't involve work or employment at all, where you can still benefit from a basic understanding of personal protective equipment. So let's start at the beginning.

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