When you cannot engineer, administratively eliminate or guard against a hazard, personal protective equipment is the only thing between you and serious injury. It is, in other words, the last line of defense utility workers have from injury.
When I perform safety audits, I often hear the same excuses for not having PPE on at the time. “It’s too uncomfortable,” “I can’t work with these on,” “I can’t be productive if I follow all these rules.”
Let’s deal with the first one: “It’s too uncomfortable.”
Hard hats are required where there is a hazard to the head. Hard hats are designed and tested to withstand tremendous impacts, and those used in our industry are electrically tested to 20k. They are not tested in the backwards position. With the exception of welders, a worker wearing a hard hat backwards is not in compliance with OSHA standards. Are they uncomfortable? The real question should be, “Are they more uncomfortable than stitches, a concussion, or recovering from having a titanium plate placed in your skull?”
Safety glasses, or more specifically, not wearing them is the most common violation I find during audits. “I can’t see well enough wearing them,” or “They are hot around my eyes while I am working” are the usual excuses. While I can see how hanging them around your neck reduces that uncomfortable feeling, is it more uncomfortable than eye surgery to remove a foreign object or more uncomfortable than losing your eyesight? Try this—put on a blindfold and walk around your home for a few hours. Then, go to the kitchen and make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Which is more uncomfortable, protecting your eyes or losing your eyesight?
Rubber gloves and sleeves are truly PPE that is physically uncomfortable to wear. The heat inside them makes you sweat; you can’t place small nuts on bolts with them on so they are truly inconvenient. Uncomfortable though? How about the pain of burns or the skin graphs that go along with flashes and contacts? What about the recovery pain from second- and third-degree burns? I have seen too many serious burns and incidents where the worker made primary contact. The pain is 24/7/365. I once worked with a lineman who lost both arms below the elbow because he did not ground a line during trouble work. He will never be able to hold his daughter or play games that he enjoyed as hobbies. Do you think he is uncomfortable?

WHO DEPENDS ON YOU?
Ask yourself this question: Who depends on you? That’s right, who depends on you monetarily and emotionally? Why would you place yourself in harm’s way for something you don’t own? Is your comfort level so important that you would lose your eyesight, a limb or two, or your life?
Line workers are not the only professionals who have to deal with uncomfortable PPE.
Would a racecar driver not wear a “Hans” helmet system because it was too hot or he or she could not see out very well? What about firefighters and all the gear they wear? I once was called to a house fire to disconnect the service so the firefighters could put water on the fire. I had my climbing gear, rubber gloves, hardhat and safety glasses on when I went up to disconnect the service. When I got to the ground, the firefighters told me they wouldn’t do what I do for any amount of money. Then they turned around and went into a burning house.
They had on all of their personal protective equipment and clothing. Do you think they were uncomfortable? You bet they were, but they would never fight a fire without that equipment. They, like you, are professionals.
Personal protective equipment may be uncomfortable and some times inconvenient, but it is the last line of defense from serious injury and permanent disabilities. iP