Where to buy PPE

Hello, We try to buy some PPE including Arc-rated faceshield and arc rated overall for our employees who are doing the data collection all the time. Could you please let me know normally which category we should provide at least? Where do you buy these equipments? Thanks!

See your local electrical supplies distributors or your local safety/clothing distributors.

Around here (Québec), that means Lumen (Sonepar), Westburne (Rexell), Wesco, etc. for electrical supplies distribution, and Tenaquip, Warehouse, "Centre du travailleur", etc. for safety/clothing distribution.

Not everyone offers the same level of service/knowledge.

It would help if we knew where you live. Nobody can tell you what HRC to buy, you need to determine that based on the equipment you will be working on.

Thanks! I just found a catalogue book from Levitt-safety. They do provide all the PPE for Arc flash hazard.

Don't see many of the most common arc flash clothing listed. Be careful with this type of company, they sell everything safety related and most likely know little about the arc flash PPE market. As vincent said

First answer these questions.

What PPE do you need?
Daily wear or coveralls?
What climate?
Rent/lease or buy?
Laundering? Who will do it, who will ensure it is done right?
What HRC's are you exposed to? (Voltage has little to do with it)
Any chemical exposure? That determines your material choice.
How dirty will they get, industrial or home laundering?
Any clean room requirements?
Does Made in USA matter?
Does it need to be union made?
Does price matter or do you want the best regardless of price?

All these questions and more need to be considered to get the right PPE, there are about 20 different materials out there, all with advantages and disadvantages.

However, 90% of these guys selling the PPE have no idea about the performance of the materials or the other choices, they just sell what they buy, and usually that means Indura Ultra Soft, which is a good material for alot of people. Anyone can make coveralls or flash suits out of these fabrics (Indura is made in Chicago by Westex for example), the features and quality of the PPE you buy varies greatly from one place to the other so you better do your homework.

You also need to be carefull of "counterfit" PPE, it is out there and few suppliers know how to recognize it.

Thanks Zog, to be honest, I have never thought about this before. We will make sure the PPE that we get will meet our needs.

Do you have any written documentation on the Electrical Specific PPE, Tools & Equipment before you buy. Zog makes some good points and I also make the same recommendations with client. You can't just go shopping, for example Mark's Work Warehouse is not where you should buy Electrical Specific PPE.

What I am fining is industry is doing two things in the short term and not putting into place an Electrical Safety Program at the same time or at all.

You should make a plan and write it down. I recommmend you get a copy of CSA Z1000 Occupational health and safety management, it provides a simple Plan, Do, Check, Act model.

Have you written down what your "mission" is and where you want to go?

An Electrical Safety Program is required and is a significant portion of your overall due diligence, CSA Z1000 also outlines a hierachy based requirement for implementing protective and preventative control measures.

In my electrical safety auditing work Electrical Specific PPE, Tools & Equipment are being totally mismanaged, be careful that you don't expose your company to more OH&S risk by not training your staff on the Electrical Specific PPE, Tools & Equipment and not managing it correctly.

More than willing to discuss what I know.

Regards;
Terry Becker, P.Eng.
Owner
ESPS Electrical Safety Program Solution INC.
403-465-3777
terry.becker@espsi.ca