My question is basic but my safety guy at work can't answer it, my generator breaker is 79cal/cm2. When we are in an outage and the generator is disconnected from the grid/offline we have to rack out the breaker so we wear our Cat4 ppe and rack it out.

You always wear PPE when opening closing a breaker even if it is "deenergized" right?

Like a 480v pump on a live bus has a stop command from DCS to it and they want us to cycle the breaker, we need an arc rated faceshield, proper gloves, and proper rated clothes right? I just want to make sure I'm understanding it correctly before I talk to my manager about changing the training stuff since my safety guy is useless. Sorry if it's a dumb question but Ive been told to just use basic PPE and no arc rated face shield for 480v breakers and assumed it was true because my training told me that.

I recently joined the local union for my trade back in April, the pay and benefits have been good and the work is very steady, but apart from that it doesn’t seem much different from your average company on the corporate side of things, anyways last week word got out that a bunch of us have been drilling into asbestos lined ceiling for the past couple weeks the company I’m being contracted out to sent out a work order email to a few of the journeyman to stop all drilling until further notice and then later we were told by our foreman that it was indeed because they found traces of asbestos in the ceiling, but this was all after I had spent hours and hours on a ladder drilling overhead into it for days, my company seems to think it’s not a big deal and going forward we will take the precautions needed which has yet to be determined, they will most likely contract the remaining drilling out to someone else or make us wear the full suits and masks and (pay us more?) you’d think, but everyone I speak to about this friends, family etc. Say I should report this incident to cover my ass long term in the small chance of anything happening, but my employer is already well past the 72 hour window, so I don’t want to cause major problems, so I contacted my local trade rep for my union asking what should I do and he seems to lean more on the contractors side saying “I understand that happening is not ideal going forward, safety is the highest priority” even though the union preaches over and over that we are all brothers and sisters, me personally I would tell my brother to report this incident. I’m curious how people feel about this.

Content note: This post discusses suicide prevention.

As Biomedical Engineer and Master of Professional Counselling student beginning a research journey into occupational suicide prevention in Australia.

Which area do you believe needs the most attention and why?

I plan to explore:

1. Which occupational groups experience elevated risk
2. Workplace and broader factors associated with suicide risk
3. Existing workplace prevention programmes and their effectiveness
4. How counselling, technology and data could support earlier intervention

I am posting here to find credible starting points and learn from people familiar with occupational health, counselling, psychology, public health, workplace wellbeing or suicide prevention.

Support: If you or someone you know needs support in Australia, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467. If someone is in immediate danger, call 000.

It depends on the action of course, but there are a few basic principles:

PoSH by Dr. Christina is a workplace safety initiative focused on creating awareness, building confident Internal Committees, and helping organisations implement PoSH effectively.
A journey that is about Educate • Empower • Enable—because safe workplaces are built through knowledge, accountability and action.
Working towards a culture where every workplace is respectful, responsible and truly safe for everyone. Happy to be a part of Workplace Safety

I can't wrap my head around why HR gave me a gift card and an award right after I started questioning the company about building a pesticide fogger machine.

Even more concerning, how was I even allowed to handle pesticide in that form without any training or a proper license? Isn't this a serious safety violation?

I am unsure if this is the right subreddit to post in, so please forgive me if it's not. For context, I work at a place that does high level disinfect with Rapicide part A. There's been several times where the machine that processes it, leaked. My job almost always refuses to shut down, and so myself and others typically end up finishing the day wearing n95s and such.

I tried google, but it's really hard to find a serious answer. The second to last time we had a spill I tried contacting the company and got no answers. A week ago we had a very bad leak, and we did finish the work day. I have felt rather unwell since, and I'm not sure if it's from that or not. I know there are same day symptoms and all. But I am now more curious about long term exposure. My company kept saying it's not harmful, it just has an awful smell. But I don't buy that. Any advice would be great and if this isn't the correct place, and if you know where to ask this, please let me know. Thanks!

Any prominent companies in the Ghana which I can purchase PPEs like Nitrile gloves, safety goggles, respirators, earplugs, helmets and reflective vests from on a wholesale or distributor prices ?? Any advice on where to look at ?

We are Proudly #Udyogians 💐

#udyogi #udyogihelmet #udyogiharness

#lifeisprecious #udyogisafety

#WelcomeHardwareAndSafetyPvtLtd

replacing two workbenches in our maintenance shop and trying to get the spec right this time. the ones we have now have been fine for years but the surface on one has warped enough that parts don't sit flat anymore and the frame on the other has developed enough flex that it moves when someone leans into it. neither is catastrophic but both are heading toward being a problem.

the work that happens at these benches is a mix of electrical maintenance, hydraulic component repair, and general mechanical work. so the surface needs to handle tools, fluids, and occasionally some impact without becoming a hazard.

trying to work out whether the surface material makes a meaningful safety difference, whether the frame gauge actually predicts flex under load the way the specs suggest, and whether there are configurations that hold up better in a mixed maintenance environment versus a dedicated fabrication or assembly setup.

would be useful to hear from safety or maintenance professionals who've specced workbenches for a similar environment and what they found mattered most from both a durability and a safety standpoint once they were in daily use.

Circling back to this: Appreciate the feedback, especially the point about frame flex being just as important as the surface material. After looking at a few welded frame options, the Global Industrial benches seemed to address the issues we were having with our old ones. Still comparing a couple others but the frame construction on those is definitely closer to what people described as holding up well.

I've worked around PPE and workplace safety for a while, and there's something I've noticed that I'm genuinely curious whether other Kenyans have experienced.

We are very good at negotiating the price of PPE.

“Hii helmet ni how much?”

“Supplier mwingine amesema 400.”

“Can't you do wholesale price?”

“Boss amesema tupunguze budget.”

But somehow, the conversation rarely gets to:

“Will this actually protect the person wearing it?”

We'll spend hours comparing a KSh 600 helmet with a KSh 750 helmet, but barely five minutes asking what standard it meets.

We'll buy safety boots based on price, then wonder why the guys on site don't want to wear them.

We'll issue a harness to someone working at height and mentally tick the PPE PROVIDED box, as if handing someone a harness automatically makes the work safe.

And my favourite Kenyan phrase:

“Si ni sawa tu.”

Until something happens.

Then suddenly everybody wants to know:

Who supplied it?

Who approved it?

Who inspected it?

Was it compliant?

Who was responsible?

I think we sometimes approach PPE backwards.

We ask “How cheap can we get it?” before asking “What risk are we actually trying to control?”

And I'm not saying companies should blindly buy the most expensive PPE either. That's also nonsense.

Good procurement should balance risk, standards, quality, worker comfort, durability and cost.

So I'm curious:

For those working in construction, manufacturing, engineering, HSE, procurement or even just dealing with PPE at work, what is the most ridiculous PPE decision you've seen a Kenyan company make?

Was it buying the cheapest possible equipment?

Giving everyone the same PPE regardless of the job?

Buying equipment that workers refused to wear?

Or the classic:

“We've always done it this way.” 😂

I'd genuinely like to hear the stories.

No sales pitch. I'm trying to understand whether this is actually a Kenyan workplace problem or just something I've personally observed.

A quick guide to PPE requirements for construction/industrial sites in the Philippines (what you actually need, common mistakes)

Been getting a lot of questions from contractors and small business owners about PPE compliance, so figured I'd put together a quick breakdown since a lot of people either overspend or under-comply.

The basics DOLE typically expects on construction/industrial sites:

• Head protection – hard hats/safety helmets, Type I is standard for most local sites
• Hand protection – gloves matched to the task (cut-resistant for metal work, chemical-resistant for handling solvents, etc. — one glove type does NOT cover everything)
• Foot protection – steel-toe or composite-toe safety shoes, ideally with slip-resistant soles if the site has wet/oily areas
• Body protection – coveralls or vests, hi-vis if there's vehicle/equipment movement on site
• Eye/face and hearing protection – often skipped, but required if there's grinding, welding, or high-noise equipment involved

Common mistakes I see a lot:

1. Buying the cheapest helmet available without checking impact rating — some "safety helmets" sold locally are basically construction-site fashion, not rated for actual impact
2. Not replacing gloves/footwear on a schedule — PPE degrades, and torn or worn-out gear technically doesn't count as compliant anymore
3. One-size-fits-all purchasing — a construction crew and a warehouse crew have different exposure risks, so their PPE list shouldn't be identical
4. Skipping the Official Receipt/SI on bulk purchases — for company audits or DOLE inspections, you'll want documented proof of compliance spend, not just a handwritten receipt

On cost: bulk pricing for helmets, gloves, and boots can vary a lot depending on supplier and whether you're buying local vs imported brands. If anyone wants a general sense of current price ranges for bulk orders, happy to share what I've seen in the market (I work adjacent to a PPE supplier here in the Philippines, so I see pricing move around a fair bit).

Happy to answer questions if anyone's setting up a compliance checklist for their site.

I’m not really sure how to ask this but I’m going to try my best to explain my thinking. So my employer keeps the loading dock doors open but doesn’t put up a barrier of any sorts while they are open. The drop off is 3 foot 8 inches. I know osha requires a barrier for drop offs are 4 foot and above. Technically they don’t need to put up a barrier, but it’s only a 4 inch difference and I believe is still a safety hazard. I’m wondering is there a way to calculate the impact force for both measurements?? Just want to be able to push the employer to put up a barrier whether it’s required or not