I have been involved with coshh assessments but have never really come across this before...how do you go about removing PPE, particularly goggles/safety glasses and gloves that have got contaminated with liquid chemicals such as acid? How do you prevent it from getting into your eyes and onto your skin? Any information gratefully received, especially if you have first hand experience of this.

I was speaking from the point of view of an assessor not a user. There is a job to do; I am looking for the safest method of removal in event of a splash

You wash your gloved hands to remove the contamination and then remove the gloves. But glove wearers should be able to use a technique to remove gloves without transferring the contamination to the skin. See hse website http://www.hse.gov.uk/sk.../gloves/removegloves.htm If your goggles and suit are splashed with acid then you get into the emergency shower and wash the contaminant off before removing the ppe. But there should be another spill team member who washes you down and decontaminates you before you remove your ppe. If you search the internet there are numerous articles, industry guidance and govt websites that have useful information eg http://www.healthandsafe...ontent/how-wear-your-ppe - this article covers the order in which you take it off and how. Hope this is of some help

Cannot a second person do this for you?

There is a technique to removing gloves- I used to do it and taught it to a lot of people while they were working for us, but before we did anything we rinsed the gloves under water and rubbed gloved hands together to help release some of the chemical. You pull the fingers down a bit on your weaker hand o loosen, roll your fingers on the outside of the glove near the hand hole and pull your almost completely out so the inside of the glove is showing. You then remove the glove from your dominant hand and scrunch the glove in your weaker hand. You then use your stronger hand to fold the glove over making the glove inside out and therefore holding any excess chemical inside. you can then remove your safety glasses.

If I were getting chemical on my safety glasses I would be very upset! What about the chemical then on the rest of my face? At the very least I would want a visor to cover my facial skin, preferably with some more general head protection. And I would prefer to remove this with my gloved hands prior to taking off my gloves and, presumably, my chemical-proof coveralls as it is obvious that the exposure is not limited to the safety glasses and gloves. Chris