The whole point of this monthly column is to provide an educational resource for the fire and emergency services about their personal protective equipment, especially as related to its performance, use limitations, selection, care and maintenance.
In general, we believe we are getting this message out to our readership and particularly enjoy receiving inquiries for more information and help in a particular areas of PPE, whether covered by our articles or not.
We know that the more people that we reach to provide a basic understanding of PPE, the standards that cover that PPE and issues related to selection, care, and use of PPE, the safer the fire service will be.
Every year, the Fire Department Instructors Conference is where all of the PPE manufacturers showcase their existing and emerging products. For those who can attend, it is the probably the best opportunity to see a wide range of products and get an understanding of various forms of protective clothing and equipment through seeing the different items, watching product demonstrations, and examining product literature.
Limited information
Yet, as large as the show is, most firefighters do not get the chance to attend it or any of the other shows held each year. Their outside direct exposure to PPE information is likely to come from sale persons or distributors, who of course will be advancing their own products.
This one-sided perspective can be informative and some of the better presentations may provide good details about products in general. Still, most marketing and sales are directed to the purchasing authorities within the organization. Most mainstream firefighters may not get the opportunity to be involved in direct presentations.
This leaves firefighters and other emergency responders to seek their information from either other individuals in their department or from the Internet. Certainly, a relatively wise approach is to rely on those firefighters within the organization have extensive information.
There are many PPE “sages” throughout the fire service that serve as a wealth of experience and knowledge for those around them. We recommend that you consider these people as some of the best sources of information for learning about PPE.
Internet search
With every other resource tapped, the one source that remains is the Internet. This is certainly the most ubiquitous form of information there is for society and the most likely avenue for anyone who wants more details on the specific types of PPE.
Many questions can be answered in one place or another using the Internet, and we suggest a methodical approach for searching out needed data and providing a balanced approach.
Internet sources include both end user and manufacturer sites. There are other sites that with enough searching can yield information pretty much on any PPE topic. The depth and quality of this information will vary and it is possible that for some areas, no useful information may be easily found.
Obtaining information in a form that is useful for addressing selection, use and care issues for PPE can be difficult and you can spend a lot of time. Therefore, we recommend that for any particular type of PPE that you are interested in, you go through the following steps.
- Begin with the manufacturer of the current product that you are using. Some product labels may have the website identified on the label, but if not, it is an easy matter to find the manufacturer on the website.
- Each manufacturer uses a different organization of their web content, so with some study of the sight, you may be able to locate various pages on products, information or literature. For example, a product site may have a link to a specific brochure or other background information that allows you to drill down to the topic of your interest.
- Nearly all manufacturer websites offer a link to make inquires within their organization for asking particular questions or making requests for specific information not covered in the website. You can either send an inquiry or call the customer service group to be directed to right person. Internet inquires may sometimes work best in this regard as the company will generally sort the information to make sure the question or inquire is handled by the appropriate individual within the organization.
- If you do not find the information on the particular manufacturer website, extend your investigation by looking at competitor websites. Identifying other manufacturers may be accomplished by a simple search. If you examine these websites in the same manner, in addition to gaining a different perspective, you are likely to come across other aspects of the PPE that you may not have previously considered.
- Attempt to identify non-manufacturer general industry articles that have been published on line such as this article series or others like it. These articles often express opinions but can also provide objective information on a range of PPE topics.
One of the more sought out areas of information on PPE has to do with standards. This is a particularly difficult area because the majority of standards are not written for the end user but for the manufacturer, testing laboratories and certification organizations.
It is only infrequently that background information is provided that describes how a test is performed or what the criteria mean. There are many manufacturers that provide some of these descriptions on their websites, but there is no universal source for this type of information.
At a recent special NFPA meeting, the lack of fire and emergency services awareness or access to information on standards was considered the foremost need by the group that writes the standards. It is our hope that this gap is better covered by NFPA in its future offerings of information making it easier for firefighters and other first responder obtain details on PPE requirements.
We recognize that getting the exact answer to any specific question on any PPE topic will always take a series of steps to identify potential sources, obtain the required information, and weigh its values, but we also believe that we will expect to see the industry as a whole find ways of making this information more accessible for those that request it.
The continuing education of the fire service on its PPE will only strengthen the overall levels of safety and health provided to a better-informed population of first responders.
