What Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is appropriate for a damage assessment?
Below is a partial list of protective measures that each responder should have access to in order to reduce their hazard exposure and to lower their overall risk.
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- Respiratory Protection (N95 dust mask will not filter out toxins or oxygen deficient environments)
- Eye Protection
- Hard Hat
- Hearing Protection
- Proactive Light Source
- Hand protection (fluid barrier, abrasion barrier, etc.)
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- Communication device
- Hot Stick (detects electrical current)
- Personal Flotation Device (PFD)
- Air Meter (detects air quality)
- Other?
- ________________
- ________________
- ________________
- ________________
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Power Tip
It is important to remember that just having the PPE is not the same as using it appropriately.
A hard hat in your backpack when a piece of debris falls on your head offers the same protection as not having a hard hat at all!