Certifying personal protective technologies
Subtitle: improving worker safety
By: Committee on the Certification of Personal Protective Technologies, Board on Health Sciences Policy ; Howard J. Cohen and Catharyn T. Liverman, editors ; Institute of Medicine of the National Academies
Contributors: Cohen, Howard J.; Liverman, Catharyn T.; National Academies Press (U.S.)
Publisher: National Academies Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Washington, D.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 150
ISBN-13: 9780309158558
Subjects: Protective clothing; Safety measures; Health risk assessment; Industrial safety; Employees; Standards
Description: When you purchase a product, you expect it to work. Construction workers on high-rise buildings need to be confident that their safety harnesses will arrest a fall. Firefighters need to know that their gloves and other protective equipment can withstand high temperatures. Healthcare workers administering highly toxic chemotherapy agents need to know that their gloves will withstand penetration. For personal protective technologies (PPT)--where the major purpose of the product is to protect the wearer against a hazard--a deficit in product effectiveness can mean injury, illness, or death. Examining the extent to which products meet specific performance or design criteria is the focus of conformity assessment efforts. For PPT conformity assessment, the ultimate goal is preventing worker illness, injury, or death from hazardous working conditions. This book focuses on conformity assessment for occupational PPT--ensuring that PPT are effective in preventing or reducing hazardous exposures or situations that workers face in their jobs. Because respirators already have an extensive testing and conformity assessment process in place, this book specifically addresses conformity assessment processes for other types of PPT, including eye and face protection, gloves, hearing protectors, and protective clothing.--Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.

Also available in Open Book format via the National Academies Press home page.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Role of government agencies in conformity assessment; title: Current PPT conformity assessment processes; title: Impact and issues in conformity assessment for PPT; title: Conformity assessment for non-respirator PPT: a risk-based framework; title: Findings and recommendations; title: Toward a comprehensive approach to safe and effective PPT for workers.