The law on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is changing. The new PPE Regulation will reflect changes in how PPE is developed, produced and sold, and will affect everyone in the PPE industry – including manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers.

Although full enforcement of the PPE Regulation won’t take place until April 2018, following a two-year transition period, it is imperative that affected businesses start working towards ensuring that they will be compliant.

The changes mean that companies which import, supply, market or sell PPE will have the same responsibilities as the manufacturer. This includes obtaining product approval, ensuring conformity with the Regulation, and maintaining technical records. It is intended that the changes will help to reduce the amount of inferior standard, counterfeit and illegal products that are currently in the market.

Also, there will be reclassification of some products, a change which focuses on those items that are designed to deal with more serious risks, where the hazard may not be immediately obvious. This means that more ongoing surveillance of items will be necessary. It will hopefully also lead to better designed products that employees find easier to use and care for.

The end result should be that companies will be able to have increased confidence in PPE that they purchase from suppliers, as the products will have gone through increased steps and protocols to ensure that it is certain to protect wearers. Though this may lead to increased costs associated with PPE, the savings from reductions in illness or injury should more than make up for this. After all, protecting your people is the best way of protecting your business.

For complete details of the changes, read this.

For information on how we can help you with risk assessments, or to ascertain your PPE needs, contact us at info@amalgamate-safety.com or call 0141 244 0181.