Which safety workwear is suitable for which working environment?
Wearing the proper safety workwear is essential for employees working on construction sites, as well as any industrial environment, including railways, ports, and mining sites. As an employer, you have a legal duty to protect the health and well-being of your workforce, and you can ensure this by providing your staff with comfortable protective workwear that’s compliant with the relevant safety standards.
A vital part of this process, however, is ensuring your employees are provided with the correct type of protective workwear for the environment they’re working in, and this will be dependent on whichever hazards they need to be protected from. For example, does the workwear need to be flame resistant? Do they need to be seen when working in low light? Do they need lightweight garments, or workwear that’s able to protect them from the rain and low temperatures? As part of your risk assessment, these are all questions you need to ask yourself before choosing your protective workwear.
If you want to know which of our safety workwear is suitable for which working environment, consult our quick guide below…
The Bright Gear range
Our Bright Gear range is suitable for railways, ports, and construction sites where aggregates are used, as well as any other outdoor industrial locations. This is because every garment in this range conforms to the Railway Group Standard (GO/RT 3279), as well as the EN 20471 Standard (European Standard), which is split into 3 classes to assess each garment’s level of suitability and durability. In fact, a number of the high visibility items in this range, such as the Standard and Premium Coveralls, and the Standard and Premium Jacket, offer the European Standard’s highest level of visibility.
As well as keeping your workers easily visible in these environments due to their double stitched retro reflective tap and bright orange colour, our high visibility garments have been designed to provide the wearer with an optimum level of comfort and minimal restriction to their movement. This is thanks to features such as elasticated cuffs and movement panels. This workwear range is also suitable for many weather conditions because the garments are lightweight, though our jackets and coveralls have built-in heavy duty zips to limit wind chill effect.
The Glow Gear range
Our Glow Gear range is highly suitable for railways and aggregates, as well as any working environment with low light. This makes it the perfect option for use when mining, and working on utilities projects. Like our Bright Gear range, the items in our Glow Gear range are bright orange in colour, they’re fully
compliant with the Railway Group Standard (GO/RT 3279) and EN 20471 Standard, and many of the garments offer the wearer the highest level of visibility required by this Standard. However, thanks to the innovative dual technology reflective tape, your workers are given an extra layer of protection in all light levels, as this enables our Glow Gear garments to react to naturally changing layers of light.
Another advantage of the Glow Gear range is that it’s comfortable enough not to restrict the wearer’s movement, and it includes features such as hammer straps, utility pockets, and zipped document and ID pockets, which are essential for keeping your employees’ belongings safe when working in low light. The Soft Shell Jacket is also great for keeping employees warm when mining thanks to its fleece lining, and its windproof and showerproof properties.
The Flame Gear range
Our Flame Gear range is flame resistant, which means it’s suitable in any environment where welding, cutting and grinding is carried out. Conforming to both the EN 11611 Standard (Welding) and EN 11612 (Flame Retardant) Standards, our Flame Gear provides insulation from heat, and resists breaking open and exposing skin to heat and harmful chemicals, which is essential when working in confined spaces. The garments also contain anti-static core conducting fibres, and have a 97% chemical repellence rate against Sulphuric acid, Butanol, and Sodium Hydroxide.
The flame resistant workwear in our Flame Gear range is also designed to not restrict movement when workers are welding, cutting and grinding in confined spaces. This is ensured with features such as the
vertical movement panels, which enable the wearer to stretch above whilst minimising garment rise, and remaining protected against dangerous chemicals. Thick reflective tape also increases employees’ visibility in smoke and low light levels.
At phs Besafe, our Bright Gear, Glow Gear and Flame Gear ranges are maintained with our industrial laundry service to ensure their compliance with the relevant safety standards. For more information on our high visibility and flame resistant workwear, contact phs Besafe.