Italconf - Your safety partner

The Consolidation Act on the job safety (legislation decree No. 81 of April 9th 2008) refers to the current regulations regarding health and safety in the workplace and “applies to both private and public sectors and encompasses all types of risks”.

Its application foresees “general measures for the protection of the health and the safety of workers in the workplace” which consist in “the assessment of all-hazard risks”, in the “prevention program”, and “in occupational risk elimination where possible or “substantial occupational risk reduction.”

The wear of PPE is mandatory when “risks cannot be avoided or sufficiently reduced by collective protective measures”. Personal protective equipment (PPE) means all equipment which is worn or held to protect against risks to health or safety…”

Personal protective equipment must conform to Legislative Decree 475/92. It is the employer’s responsibility to make sure that all documentation attesting the conformity to all the provisions of the directive, data sheet and CE marking are issued. It is the employer’s responsibility “to make sure that the PPE characteristics meet the required criteria”.

The CE mark affixed on garments indicates that the products conform to the essential requirements stated in the European Directive 89/686/EEC implemented in Legislative decree No. 475 and the specific requirements stated in the harmonized European standards. The CE certification is the formal attestation issued by the Control Agency endorsing product conformity to the normative.
Before selling a PPE product, the manufacturer is required to prepare the technical documentation to make it available to the competent authorities upon request.

Personal protective equipment is classified into three categories, on the basis of the seriousness of the risk the worker is subject.

Personal protective equipment belonging to the first category is of simple design, suitable to protect the worker from slight physical damage (superficial damage produced by mechanical instruments, slight easily reversible damage caused by cleaning detergents, risks deriving from contact or collision with hot objects not exceeding 50° C temperature, ordinary weather phenomena, slight collisions and vibrations that do not affect vital organs, slight sunburns). Category 1 PPE can be ‘self-certified’ by the manufacturer.

Second category PPE is neither simple or complex and includes all personal protective equipment that does not fall into the other categories. Category 2 encompasses protective safety equipment that provides protection from medium damages, but not from death or permanent injury. Category 2 PPE requires that the manufacturer submit product for EC type examination to a recognized test house.

The third category includes all personal protective equipment of complex design intended to protect against mortal danger or against dangers that may seriously and irreversibly harm the health, the immediate effects of which the designer assumes the user cannot identify in sufficient time. This category shall cover exclusively filtering respiratory devices for protection against solid and liquid aerosols or irritant, dangerous, toxic or radiotoxic gases, respiratory protection devices providing full insulation from the atmosphere, including those for use in diving, PPE providing only limited protection against chemical attack or against ionizing radiation, emergency equipment for use in high-temperature environments the effects of which are comparable to those of an air temperature of 100° C or more and which may or may not be characterized by the presence of infra-red radiation, flames or the projection of large amount of molten material, PPE to protect against falls from a height, PPE against electrical risks and

dangerous voltages or that used as insulation in high-tension work.

Category 3 PPE, in

addition to the EC type of examination, the manufacturer has to establish an EC quality

control system for ensuring the quality of

the products by means of monitoring (under

supervision of a notified body).