- Overview
- Products
- Respiratory Protection
- Hearing Protection
- Fire Safety
- Eye protection
- Head and Face Protection
- Welding Protection
- Protective Coveralls
- Fall Protection
- All Products
- Industry Solutions
- Metal Production & Fabrication
- Energy & Utilities
- Confined Space
- Defence PPE
- Construction Industry Solutions
- Healthcare Solutions & PPE
- Pharmaceutical Industry Solutions
- Chemical Industries Solutions
- All Industries
- TRAINING
- Resources
- Genuine PPE
- PPE Safety News
- PPE Fit Validation
- PPE Selection & Use
- Guide to the PPE Regulation (EU) 2016 / 425
- Support
Working together.
Work with 3M to discover how our PPE technologies and services may help encourage workers to wear PPE when exposed to hazards.
What is the 3M Integrated Protection Programme*?
PPE is most effective when worn properly, 100% of the time exposed to hazards – and it works best when it works together.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is often selected to protect workers against specific hazards. Workers seldom encounter hazards one at a time, which means they often need to wear multiple types of PPE at once. This is why we’ve introduced the 3M Integrated Protection Programme*, a portfolio of personal protective equipment (PPE) technologies and services which may work together to help address one or more of workers’ various needs, including comfort, fit, compatibility, communication, or performance.
Why wear time is so important?
-
CommunicationCommunicating clearly while wearing hearing and respiratory protection can be challenging. If workers remove PPE to speak, protection may be compromised.
-
CompatibilityWorkers need to wear multiple types of PPE for long periods of time, which may interfere with each other when worn together.
-
Help ensure a proper fitFit can have a significant impact on protection. Fit testing is a best practice, and is often required by standards and regulations to verify that PPE is providing the expected level of protection.
There are many factors that affect how well PPE fits the individual wearer, including size and shape of the wearer and other equipment or clothing worn at the same time. -
ComfortHeat, humidity and lack of breathability can cause discomfort. So can chafing or pressure from overlapping PPE.
-
PerformanceFrom fogging eyewear to interrupted communications, PPE not working together can be cumbersome and can interfere with the job at hand. -
Working togetherHelp boost safety and health on the job
Work with 3M to discover how our PPE technologies may help encourage workers to wear PPE when exposed to hazards.
Average 30% reduction compared to previous generation 3M hard hats.
Help ensure a proper fit
Fit can have a significant impact on protection. Fit testing is a best practice, and is often required by standards and regulations to verify that PPE is providing the expected level of protection. There are many factors that affect how well PPE fits the individual wearer, including size and shape of the wearer and other equipment or clothing worn at the same time.
-
A tight-fitting respirator needs to seal to a wearer’s face. Otherwise, contaminated air can enter the wearer’s breathing zone.
Applies to all tight-fitting respirators, including:
- Filtering facepiece particulate respirators
- Half and full facepiece respirators with filters and/or cartridges
- Tight fitting facepieces connected to PAPRs or supplied air respirators, or used with SCBAs
-
If earplugs do not fit the wearer’s ear canals or earmuffs the wearer’s head well, external noise may bypass the hearing protector, which can lead to noise-induced hearing loss over time. A benefit of hearing protector fit testing is that it can help identify persons at risk for overexposure to noise due to improper fit.
Applied to:
- Disposable and reusable earplugs
- Earmuffs
- Protective communication devices
-
All eye protection needs to provide a wide field of view, security of fit, and good coverage.
- Protective goggles should fit snugly with no gaps between the protective goggles and the wearer’s face.
- Protective eyewear should have minimal gaps between protective eyewear and the wearer’s face.
-
Worker comfort, fit, and ease of use are key considerations in the selection of a full body harness. Full body harnesses distribute fall arrest forces across the shoulders, upper thighs, chest, and pelvis. Therefore, proper fit is critical. Harnesses should be chosen based on the task and the size of the wearer, and then donned, fitted and adjusted properly before each use.
Applies to all fall protection harnesses.
*3M Integrated Protection Programme refers to 3M’s portfolio of personal protective equipment (PPE) technologies and services that may be used by workers for their various needs, including comfort, fit, compatibility, communication, or performance. The depicted combinations are representative examples of which technologies may work together, but these combinations may not be appropriate for all work environments. Employers are responsible to select PPE combinations based on employee risk assessment for hazards and ensure that fit testing of combinations are conducted while wearing all appropriate PPE.
Contact a 3M Specialist
