Hi Rimmer, the PPE must be appropriate for the specific hazards being presented and must be chosen accordingly. It is therefore essential to know exactly what protection is being offered by the equipment. Different brands and model numbers will provide different levels of protection. Thus when recording the findings of the assessment I believe that it is essential to include the exact identification of the equipment. Just as a fire risk assessment is little use without reference to the premises concerned.

Go-faster stripes on a hard hat!? LB

I disagree. If your risk assessment concludes (say) that you require an EN471 class 3 hi-visibility upper body garment, or glasses to EN 166 1F(T) I don't believe it is necessary to explicitly specify the manufacturer and precise model. I consider that if I have determined that EN 166 1F(T) is adequate, then any glasses meeting that specification may be used, it is not necessary for me to mandate (eg) Bolle Cobra HD, though if you go to our PPE person and ask for glasses, currently that's what you'll get because that's what we hold in stock. In discussions about safety boots here, a significant proportion of people have said their organisation takes the same approach - a minimum standard is specified, and people can choose boots that meet that performance specification. That's certainly the way we do it - all boots must meet EN ISO 20345 S3 or SB+P+E+WRU and must provide ankle support and must be fitted with laces, zip or other positive fastening. As long as you meet that specification, and fit under the budget, you can have what you like from the catalogues of our suppliers. I don't recall anyone suggesting this approach does not meet legal requirements.

Agreed, except for RPE. Those of us familair with face-fit testing will appreciate the subtle differences across manufacturers - interchangeability is not a 'given' for RPE.

I think it's precisely because of face-fit (and similar) issues that you should NOT precisely specify a manufacturer and model - if the PPE assessment specifies one particular model from one particular manufacturer and that doesn't fit your face... This is why we take the approach we do. We don't actually have people working in RPE but we do have people wearing boots, and a boot that's comfortable for one person isn't necessarily so for another person even if their feet are nominally the same size. My feet (for example) are at the small end of normal for length, but very, very wide and I normally end up in shoes that are nominally at least two sizes too big. Actually less of a problem in safety boots than buying normal shoes - safety boots are normally a very wide fitting - but some of our slender-footed staff really don't like the boots that fit me best.