Types of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) You Should Own

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is equipment and clothing that is worn to protect or shield the wearer from various hazards. While the range of protective equipment available today is rather extensive, from gloves to disposable clothing for working with chemicals, radiation, and bio-hazards such as COVID-19, there are certain types of PPE that everyone in Canada should own.

Whether you live in Alberta, Quebec, or anywhere in between, you need to know how to protect yourself, your loved ones, and those you come in contact with on any given day. 

With that in mind, we put together this short guide in hopes of helping everyone understand better.

A Definite MUST – KN95 Masks

If you only own one piece of PPE these days, it simply has to be a KN95 mask. The shortage of N95 masks and other PPE due to the worldwide pandemic, an onslaught of counterfeit products on the market, and almost ever-changing guidelines on COVID-19, it can be quite easy to get confused on whether they’re even needed at all.

With protocols and leading researchers and scientists firmly recommending public use of face masks to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, especially in conjunction with the social distancing of at least 1.8 meters, it really is everyone’s responsibility to own and wear masks.

With the ongoing shortage of N95 masks, many are finding that KN95s are an affordable and viable replacement. However, with names that sound so similar, it can be a little confusing. 

While there are subtle differences, when you boil it down to the finer points, N95 masks are the US standard for respirator masks and KN95 masks are the Chinese standard, and mask experts have been quoted as saying, “it’s reasonable to consider” China’s KN95s “equivalent” to US N95s. Additionally. KN95 masks are also very similar to the standards for masks in Europe (FFP2), Japan (DS), Korea (KMOEL), and Australia (P2).

KN95, N95 masks, and other coverings are helpful in slowing and even preventing the spread of germs. Even if you are completely asymptomatic, meaning you’re not showing any symptoms of the disease, you can still be infectious and spread it to those around you at any given time. 

Germs escape you with every breath, every word you speak, and of course with every cough and sneeze. Mask wearing can help prevent those germs from being thickly dispersed.

Do You Need Gloves?

While you don’t need to wear gloves at all times, you should definitely keep them in stock. Gloves help protect the skin of your hands and wrists from contact and droplet exposure and before COVID-19, were the most widely used and most commonly known PPE. Whenever handling patients, especially when dealing with blood or administering shots, healthcare workers routinely use them for their own as protection, as well as the patients’. Gloves help prevent germs from spreading through open skin, as well as helps slow or stop them from being spread to other surfaces.

Therefore, it’s definitely a good idea to keep gloves in your PPE supplies for preventative cleaning. When disinfecting your home, office, or vehicle, you should wear gloves to help prevent exposure and spread.

These days, nitrile and latex gloves are the most commonly used, and both have their advantages. Latex has a tighter fit but latex allergies are becoming more and more common. This plus the fact that nitrile gloves have the benefit of being resistant to punctures has many healthcare providers switching to nitrile. For your home/personal-protection, as long as you don’t have an allergy to latex, they’re generally the more affordable and practical choice. 

A Quick Reminder

When it comes to your hands, one of the best things you can add to your PPE plan is something you’ve been hearing for months: washing your hands. It is imperative that we all wash our hands as often as possible and when soap and water aren’t available, utilize hand sanitizer.

Using Face Shields

Generally made with a clear plastic screen, face shields help protect wearers from infectious droplets as well as contact with contaminated material. Healthcare providers wear face shields whenever there’s the potential for body fluids getting in their faces, and now some experts are recommending the use of face shields in addition to masks as social distancing. 

Without a face shield, germs can invade your body through the mucous membranes in your eyes. Even with the use of some face coverings like scarves and lower-end cloth-masks, germs can travel through the mask and enter the mucous membranes in the mouth and nose. For those wishing to protect themselves against COVID-19 as much as possible, especially those with underlying health conditions or that live with someone that does, face shields should definitely be in your PPE inventory.

What About Goggles or Glasses?

As discussed above, recently there have been experts that revealed that COVID-19 may not only be airborne but may also be transmitted via the mucous membranes in our eyes. While face shields help prevent the spread this way, a lot of people are opting to utilize protective glasses or goggles instead.

While all three options (shields, goggles, glasses) help protect the eyes from infectious droplets, there are some distinct differences. Face shields don’t specifically target the eyes, protective glasses only protect the front and sides of the eyes, leaving openings both above and below the eyes, and goggles fit securely around the eyes. This is exactly why you will see many health care professionals wear a face shield as well as goggles, gloves, and a mask.

In fact, even before the current worldwide pandemic, there were many medical and dental procedures where both the doctor and patient wore goggles or protective glasses in order to prevent a potentially contaminated substance from entering the eyes. Both goggles and glasses allow prescription glasses to be worn underneath and when used in conjunction with other recommended PPE, you can slow the spread.

 

Feature Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash