Personal Protective Equipment

Personal Protective Equipment, also commonly referred to as PPE, is gear worn to eliminate or minimise exposure to hazards at your workplace. PPE protects you and your team from serious injury, health problems, or even life threatening incidents or events.

It's the second line of defence to ensure your team members’ health and safety. The first one being to remove the hazard or the personnel from the situation — which, of course, is not always possible. Therefore, having the right PPE kit for your work is paramount to the lives and safety of you or your employees.

What Is Personal Protective Equipment?

PPE covers a wide range of products that can be broadly categorised into the following two types; general purpose, and industry specific PPE kit.

General Purpose PPE

General purpose PPE is for anyone who needs protection from hazards while completing a job. This can include workers who solely require hard hats and vests for visibility, right down to the home handy person.

Whether you’re on site or have decided to finally tackle that DIY project you've had sitting in the shed, it is imperative to take your health and safety into consideration — because accidents can happen anywhere.

Regardless of the task at hand, having basic, but reliable personal protective equipment for you and your workers is a must when staying safe and protected at all times.

Industry Specific PPE

Industrial grade PPE is gear designed for very particular requirements. Such protective gear can resist high levels of shock, vibrations and impact, or can be used in environments with extreme temperatures.

They are built to protect personnel in hazardous environments, or even deadly emergency situations. For instance, an emergency life support apparatus is essential for evacuation from a fire, gas or a chemical leak.

Business owners have responsibilities towards the health and safety of staff in their workplace. Purchasing industrial strength, tested and certified equipment is necessary for workplace health and safety compliance.

Personal Protective Equipment List

Every workplace, job site or home project is different, so each setting will need the right equipment to ensure an adequate level of safety is provided for the types of hazards present.

With that said, your standard workplace PPE kit will likely include items such as: 

• Hard hats
• Ear plugs
• Safety glasses
• Hand protection
• Safety vests
• Knee pads
• Safety boots

What to Look for When Purchasing PPE

At BIG Safety, we pride ourselves in stocking the best personal protective equipment on the market. We specifically select products that not only comply with Australian and New Zealand certified safety standards, but are functional and look good too.

Pro Choice, the makers of many great PPE products including the V9 Vented Hard Hat, recognised the need for protective gear that workers actually wanted to wear in order to boost safety compliance on site. Designed for safety, fit, comfort, and style, their products go above and beyond to ensure protective gear that will actually be worn.

Just as the BIG Safety team keeps this consideration in mind when selecting products, in additional to several other factors, when purchasing PPE for the workplace you should look for:

• Products certified to the necessary Australian safety standards, applicable to your workplace.
• Products that have been tested by an independent third party in accordance with those standards.
• Products that are designed with safety, fit, comfort and style in mind.

When buying through BIG Safety, you can rest easy knowing that you're purchasing top of the range, certified protective equipment of the highest standards. Browse our range below, learn more about specific equipment, or contact us today if you have any questions.