Personal Protective Equipment in Retail: What are the Essentials for Your Warehouse Employees?
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) refers to any and all protective clothing, accessories, and wearable/portable devices that a worker might need to stay partially/completely protected against expected work-related health hazards. Therefore, what can or cannot be considered appropriate PPE in any given workplace will vary widely, depending on the particular job’s nature and the concerned workplace.
The retailer’s warehouse is a prominent example of what is considered to be one of the many potentially dangerous workplaces. Therefore, the following protective equipment must be provided to every warehouse employee working inside a retail warehouse.
Hard Hats and Safety Helmets
Hard hats are preliminary protective headgear that absolutely everyone must wear while working or even while just visiting a warehouse. They protect people’s heads from the danger of falling debris, tools, and stacked merchandise from above. The safety helmet is a stronger, larger, and more protective version of the hard hat.
Eye and Face Protection
Eye goggles and face shields protect the eyes and the face from falling and flying debris, projectiles, and dust. While they can each be worn separately, a safety helmet with a protective visor makes for a more convenient and economic piece of PPE equipment.
Note that warehouse employees generally do not need face and eye shields with the same protection rating as those working in a factory. Nevertheless, basic protection against accidental poking, stabbing, clashing, etc., is essential.
Masks and Respirators
This is where the requirements will vary because regular warehouse respirators are not the same as specialized germ and particulate respirators. Warehouse respirators are generally designed to provide active protection against dust and particulates found inside a regular warehouse. Particulate and specialized respirators, on the other hand, will be necessary if the retailer is housing biochemical, chemical, and/or pharmaceutical products inside.
Warehouse Gloves
Warehouse gloves are not to be confused with heavy work gloves that factory workers wear. The warehouse versions also provide moderate protection against minor blunt and sharp force trauma (smash, cut, bump, etc.), but they are nowhere near as hardy or heat resistant as heavy-duty work gloves.
However, since warehouse employees need the dexterity to quickly carry, load, unload, pack, unpack, tie, and untie things, warehouse gloves allow better finger movement. While work gloves are generally unsuited in warehouses for that very reason, they might still be needed at times to handle special cargo.
Toe Protection
In the same way that falling debris and inventory can cause head injuries, they can also injure the feet. Slip resistant steel/composite toed work boots are absolutely essential PPE for all warehouse workers. In fact, a worker’s foot is at a higher risk of damage than any other body part inside a retail warehouse. The most common accidents occur when people drop heavy object(s) on their own feet while picking up, setting down, carrying, loading, or unloading them.
As we can see so far, there is a lot of room for variance as far as PPE is concerned, even if we were to consider retail warehouses only. The list of essential PPE will vary a bit, depending on the warehouse’s size, inventory type, inventory arrangements, etc. Nevertheless, the examples of warehouse PPE mentioned here should be considered essential in most settings.
The retailer’s warehouse is a prominent example of what is considered to be one of the many potentially dangerous workplaces. Therefore, the following protective equipment must be provided to every warehouse employee working inside a retail warehouse.
Hard Hats and Safety Helmets
Hard hats are preliminary protective headgear that absolutely everyone must wear while working or even while just visiting a warehouse. They protect people’s heads from the danger of falling debris, tools, and stacked merchandise from above. The safety helmet is a stronger, larger, and more protective version of the hard hat.
Eye and Face Protection
Eye goggles and face shields protect the eyes and the face from falling and flying debris, projectiles, and dust. While they can each be worn separately, a safety helmet with a protective visor makes for a more convenient and economic piece of PPE equipment.
Note that warehouse employees generally do not need face and eye shields with the same protection rating as those working in a factory. Nevertheless, basic protection against accidental poking, stabbing, clashing, etc., is essential.
Masks and Respirators
This is where the requirements will vary because regular warehouse respirators are not the same as specialized germ and particulate respirators. Warehouse respirators are generally designed to provide active protection against dust and particulates found inside a regular warehouse. Particulate and specialized respirators, on the other hand, will be necessary if the retailer is housing biochemical, chemical, and/or pharmaceutical products inside.
Warehouse Gloves
Warehouse gloves are not to be confused with heavy work gloves that factory workers wear. The warehouse versions also provide moderate protection against minor blunt and sharp force trauma (smash, cut, bump, etc.), but they are nowhere near as hardy or heat resistant as heavy-duty work gloves.
However, since warehouse employees need the dexterity to quickly carry, load, unload, pack, unpack, tie, and untie things, warehouse gloves allow better finger movement. While work gloves are generally unsuited in warehouses for that very reason, they might still be needed at times to handle special cargo.
Toe Protection
In the same way that falling debris and inventory can cause head injuries, they can also injure the feet. Slip resistant steel/composite toed work boots are absolutely essential PPE for all warehouse workers. In fact, a worker’s foot is at a higher risk of damage than any other body part inside a retail warehouse. The most common accidents occur when people drop heavy object(s) on their own feet while picking up, setting down, carrying, loading, or unloading them.
As we can see so far, there is a lot of room for variance as far as PPE is concerned, even if we were to consider retail warehouses only. The list of essential PPE will vary a bit, depending on the warehouse’s size, inventory type, inventory arrangements, etc. Nevertheless, the examples of warehouse PPE mentioned here should be considered essential in most settings.
