Hi, Our guys maintain high pressure hydraulic equipment. Could anyone recommend the type of ppe they should be supplied with. We already supply overalls, safety glasses, safety boots and gloves but was wondering if there is anything specific that is required.

With gloves it depends upon which gloves you are wearing. They must be able to provide adequate protection against the oil, which will be a skin irritant and also in many cases able to cause allergic contact dermatitis. At the same time they must also be able to withstand any physical attack. Whether a single glove can do both or whether double gloving will be needed will depend upon the actual working practices. To ensure protection against hydraulic oil you will need to identify any critical constituents and ensure that the glove used has adequate degradation and permeation breakthrough properties for these. Keep in mind that permeation data for individual substances may not indicate performance when substances are mixed. For example, a glove with a permeation breakthrough time of >240 minutes with each of toluene and methyl ethyl ketone, showed when these were mixed 1:1 a permeation breakthrough time of just 9 minutes. It isn't always quite as simple as it might, at first, appear. Chris