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Practice

Personal protective equipment requirements

Washington state DOT requires its employees to wear:
Hard hats – Flaggers must wear a hard hat at all times. Other workers are required to wear a hard hat when performing certain work activities or when required by the supervisor to do so. Basically, there is no specific requirement for a hard hat within a roadway environment. The state safety regulations establish the requirement to wear a hard hat on a construction site based upon potential exposure to danger of flying or falling objects.
Safety glasses – Employees are required to use eye and face protection equipment when machines or operations present potential eye or face injuries from physical, chemical, or radiation agents. Eye protection is provided by the department.
Safety shoes – All employees are required to wear substantial footwear, made of leather or other equally firm material in any occupation in which there is a danger of injury to the feet through falling or moving objects, or from burning, scalding, cutting, penetration, or like hazard. In addition, those employees in the high-risk class may elect to wear safety-toed footwear, in which case the department will reimburse the employee up to $125 once every two years.
Safety vests – During daylight hours, flaggers are required to wear a Class II vest. Other workers should wear high-visibility clothing such as a vest or orange T-shirt. At night flaggers must wear a Class II vest and high-visibility Class E orange pants and a hard hat with 12 square inches of retro-reflectivity. Other workers wear Class II vests with either Class E pants or white coveralls with a Class II vest. T-shirts are allowed for non-flagging workers during daylight hours.
See the new Personal Protective Equipment Chapter of WSDOT’s Safety Policies and Procedures manual at the given website.

State/Agency: Washington
Website: Link to URL
Topics: Personal Protective Equipment

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