Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) » Cleaning, Maintenance and Replacement

Figure 1: Illustration of many ship repair operations that require PPE

Figure 1: Illustration of the many ship repair operations that require PPE: Cleaning Preparation, Rescue Teams, Ventilation, and Warning Signs and Labels.

Clean and properly maintained PPE is important to ensure the effectiveness and proper functioning of PPE and to prevent transmitting infections (such as pink eye, respiratory illnesses).

General Requirements

Note: Confined space entry is one of the leading hazards associated with barge cleaning. Review Shipbreaking: Confined or Enclosed Spaces and Other Dangerous Atmospheres for information on how to protect workers from this hazard.

General Requirements

Potential Hazards:

Some of the hazards associated with improperly cleaned or maintained personal protective equipment include:

Severe burns due to employees performing hot work while wearing greasy or oily clothing.
Impaired vision due to using eye and face protection with dirty, scratched, or fogged lenses or shields.
Skin irritation or chemical absorption due to contaminated PPE such as clothing, gloves, face pieces, gloves, and boots.
Inhalation of toxic chemicals due to damaged respiratory valves or face pieces, or saturated cartridges.
Inter-changing of parts that may void the manufactures approval and cause equipment failure.
Exposure of hazardous materials such as lead, arsenic, and asbestos due to improper cleaning of respirators.
Spread of infectious diseases due to shared equipment.

Requirements and Example Solutions:

Defective, damaged, or contaminated PPE must not be used. [29 CFR 1915.152(c)]
Unsanitary PPE must be cleaned and disinfected before it is reissued. [29 CFR 1915.152(d)]
Employees must be instructed in the proper care, maintenance, useful life, and disposal of PPE. [29 CFR 1915.152(e)(1)(v)]

There are cleaning and maintenance practices for specific personal protective equipment including:

Note: There are additional PPE requirements for health related hazards (for example Lead [29 CFR 1910.1025], Arsenic [29 CFR 1910.1018], Asbestos [29 CFR 1910.1001], Cadmium [29 CFR 1910.1027]).