PPE for WPS

Personal protective equipment is the name for the collective assembly of gadgets and clothing that applicators, handlers, and workers must wear if they come in to contact with pesticides or areas where pesticides are used. These articles must be worn to comply with the Worker Protection Standard. These are the spraysuits, gloves, masks, goggles, aprons, and other equipment that are used to protect workers from the effects of pesticides that they may contact in the course of their duties.

Since I was recently discussing my meeting with Mike Pikus of FDACS who conducts these inspections in my last article and he stated that this was a complaint he had with growers and their workers and their use of PPE, I thought it was very timely to see a new revision of an EDIS publication about PPE. It was revised about the same time as my article.

Dr. Fred Fishel's article "Personal Protective Equipment for Pesticide Handlers" describes the various types of PPE and how that relates to specific instructions on the pesticide labels. It gives a good breakdown of types of gloves, respirators, and materials that are used for PPE and how that matches up with label recommendations. It also has a bunch of pictures like the one above illustrating different examples of the PPE. It makes for a good training publication for new mangers or applicators and what they need to wear to be compliant. It also would be good as a refresher for those that are in charge of the PPE and WPS.

Here is the link to Fred Fishel's latest revision of Personal Protective Equipment for Handling Pesticides. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PI061