Safety is crucial in the success of any construction company. No matter how excellent your safety pre-caution plans are, minor injuries can still happen. Construction management software is a big help in ensuring that your crew is accounted and managed properly, as well as, construction PPEs are there to keep them safe. So to prevent worse cases that may lead to delays, construction companies are now making PPE shopping one of their top priorities before carrying out any project.
The increasing urbanization in the U.S. pushed construction companies to create high-rise buildings that are about 35-100 meters tall. Usually, that’s equivalent to 39 floors. But these days, you will see buildings with more levels, even reaching beyond 50 floors. But as contractors push the levels higher, the risks associated with heights also become higher.
That said, the construction industry has become one of the biggest clientele of PPE companies. It won’t make the crew member immortal, but safety accessories and PPEs can reduce risks of accidents and prevent fatal injuries at the site.
With the rising demand for high-rise buildings, the global PPE market is continuously improving its products to save lives and save companies from liabilities. And not all PPEs are equal. We always have the notion that expensive PPEs are better than cheaper ones. At some points, it can be true most especially when materials technology is involved.
New PPE technologies can cost much. Some wearables like temperature sensors or heartbeat sensors and GPS are used to determine the health situation of workers at the site as well as their location in case of emergencies. These gadgets can greatly save lives and lessen the mortality rate in construction sites. However, you may have to invest thousands of dollars for the whole crew.
Is it worth it?
Of course! Ensuring the safety of the crew memes can help raise their productivity. Being healthy also helps them improve the quality of their work. Knowing that their employers care for them by providing them with new and necessary PPEs gives them the impression that they are valued, hence boosting their morale and improving contractor-crew member relationships. And finally, a safe worksite means a profitable company that’s free from liabilities.
Also, think about the fact that the industry is still suffering from a labor shortage. Losing a skillful worker over an accident almost means losing an investment that may take up years to replace. As you know, it isn’t easy to train a worker so he can gain all the skills he needs to do quality work. So, protect your workers by providing them with quality PPEs.
So when shopping for PPEs, spend extra time assessing your options. As we mentioned earlier, not all PPEs are equal. The market is currently dominated by 3 of the biggest PPE brands namely Honeywell, 3M, and Ansell. They became leaders in the PPE industry for a reason and that is prioritizing innovation.
PPE makers are now investing in research and development to come up with gears and accessories truly needed at the site. With the modernization of construction processes, requirements for safety should also be changed to comply with the demands of the new worksite. PPEs have undergone revolution too, mostly using innovative materials, sensors, GPS, and even digitalization. Robotics is even coming into play now.
But startups shouldn’t worry about the cost. There are new entrants in the PPE market who focus on low-cost but decent PPEs that small firms can start working with. So today, we’re going to give you 9 of the best global PPE players in terms of functionality, price, and quality.
Top Construction and Trades PPE Global Brands
- 3M – 3M is a familiar name in the construction industry. The brand offers a wide range of safety gear and other PPE products as well as accessories used to ensure the protection of both people and facilities and systems. 3M’s flagship is its line of PPEs including head and face protective equipment, reusable and disposable respirators, hearing protection equipment, protective eyewear, reflective materials for clothes, footwear, and other accessories. For other products, their quality and innovative civil security and commercial solutions and traffic safety are widely recognized.
- Honeywell – Honeywell is one of the frontrunners in the PPE market. It boasts a high-quality line of protective accessories like hearing, eye, hand, and face equipment. Apart from that, they have their first-aid, lockout/tagout, and footwear to ensure increased safety at the site. Honeywell later introduced the Salisbury line which is now considered the leading manufacturer of PPEs especially designed for the electrical trade from insulating rubber gloves to blankets, dielectric boots, temporary grounding equipment, line hose, distribution dead-end insulators, voltage detectors, plastic cover-up, and clamp sticks among many others. All of their products are guaranteed ASTM International and OSHA regulations compliant.
- Ansell – Ansell is a known manufacturer of high-performance and high-quality safety equipment for the different industries, not just construction. They focus on designing protective solutions for the hand, foot, and body for total security at the workplace. Other industries they cater to include the military, chemical, mining, food, and mining.
- MSA Safety – MSA Safety’s products are categorized into its non-core and core products. Its non-core products include miscellaneous equipment like thermal imaging cameras, respirators, gas masks, and eye and face protective equipment. They are used to complement the core products which include fire and rescue helmet, portable gas detection instrument, fixed gas and flame detection instruments, head protective equipment, and fall protective equipment.
- Lindström Group – The Lindström Group sells a wide variety of PPEs designed to reduce accidents in hazardous workplaces like the construction site Their PPE portfolio features only high-quality protective footwear, eye and face protective equipment, respiration protection, hearing protective equipment, head protective equipment, head and arm protective equipment, protective clothing, and fall arrest systems. Basically, they focus on reducing the grave effects of possible accidents at the site.
- Alpha ProTech – Alpha ProTech is an expert in the design and manufacture of high-quality PPEs including protective clothing, construction weatherization building products, as well as infection control. Its protective gear is complete from head to toe, giving construction workers total security at the site. Product categories include shoe covers, lab coats, bouffant caps, face masks, and eye shields, among many others. Because of its expertise in the safety of industries, it was able to sign private labels related to construction like the Alpha ProTech Engineered Products, Inc, which is the maker of RexSynfelt roof underlayment.
- DuPont – DuPont is another PPE manufacturer that construction companies should check out. The brand is known for its full PPE provisions for construction workers’ safety for different kinds of risks at the site. Products include body armor, fire-resistant clothes, cut protection, chemical protective garments, accessories as well as vehicle armors. So from people to heavy equipment, DuPont has protective gears designed for each. Like Alpha Protech, DuPont has other labels focused on designing especial safety products like Kevlar, ProShield garments, Nomex, Tychem garments, Protera fabric, Tyvek protective apparel, and Thermo-man demonstration unit.
- Johnson Safety Products – JSP boasts a massive research and development facility based in Oxford, UK. The company is known globally for its innovative above-the-neck PPE products. Their portfolio of products include an impressive line of eye and face protective equipment, body PPE, hearing protective equipment, head protective equipment, fall protective equipment, as well as traffic equipment.
- Avon Rubber – Finally, we have Avon Rubber. The brand’s operation is subdivided into two core markets, namely the protection and defense and the dairy. For their PPEs, Avon mainly focuses on creating protection systems for biological, chemical, biological, nuclear, and radiological defense for different industries including US homeland security and military, fire, and industrial markets. Their PPEs used in the construction site include military-grade respirators, gas masks, and other accessories.
Why Prioritize Your Crew Members’ PPEs
So why do we need to discuss safety in construction sites? Why is it necessary to determine the brands that produce the best PPEs for the construction industry?
As we mentioned, safety has a lot to do with the success of a project and a construction company. Productivity is important in construction and with a single person meeting an accident, a project can be delayed by hours or days when it is a highly skilled worker. A lot of lawsuits happening in the industry also involve employee safety so to eliminate the headaches brought about by claims, the best preventive measure you can do is to invest in high-quality PPEs and safety accessories.
To understand this better, here are the four main reasons why you need to provide your crew members with the right and complete PPEs needed in their work:
- Eliminates Legal Problems
Lawsuits due to accidents are very common in the construction industry. The site is such a hazardous workplace and risks are everywhere most especially as the building goes higher. So to prevent costly claims, be sure to complete the PPEs of your crew members as required by the OSHA. But don’t just stop at providing them PPEs. Train and orient them with the safety rules and regulations they need to comply with.
Sometimes, even when employers provide PPEs, some workers still tend to forget wearing them. For others, they intentionally won’t wear their PPEs because they feel limited by it. But when accidents happen, the employer often ends up taking the full liability. So never allow your crew members to enter the site without complete PPEs. Send them to safety training regularly. Finally, employ a safety officer who can check on the crew members at the site and assess what else is needed to boost safety at the site.
- Dangerous Chemicals at the Site
We hear a lot of cases where construction work had a long-term effect on the health of the crew members like respiratory diseases and mesothelioma where around 3,000 Americans were said to have been diagnosed with this rare cancer in 2017.
Commonly, diseases caught from the construction site are caused by asbestos fibers, which are still used in pipings in buildings. Because they can’t be totally eliminated, OSHA required a special kind of PPE for those who work around Asbestos. And you can find full gears from one of the brands we listed above. They are also required to shower after work to reduce risks of cancer caused by asbestos exposure.
- The Eyes are Irreplaceable
In the traditional construction setting, construction workers were only provided with helmets, belts, shoes, and gloves. But companies fail to recognize the risks posed to the eyes of the workers. It’s true that losing the hands and feet can lead to your dismissal as a construction worker, but much more when you lose your eyes. These days, robotic arms and feet are already becoming normal remedies to amputation but the eyesight can’t be replaced by technology, yet.
Despite that fact, the industry still sees over 50,000 incidents of eye injuries with some victims losing their eyesight totally. And the American Academy of Ophthalmology says eye injuries could have been prevented by wearing proper safety eyewear.
- Increased Work Quality
Workers are not able to work properly when they know that they are at risk. Consequently, their work quality is lower because their focus in son avoiding accidents and not on their tasks. But by wearing complete PPEs and safety accessories, they feel safer and are able to concentrate more on their job.
Final Thoughts
The importance of PPEs in the construction site can’t be underestimated as they play a big role in saving the lives of construction workers. Know your options and upgrade whenever new releases of PPEs are released as they are designed to meet the new demands of safety at the site. But apart from completing the PPEs needed by your crew members, be sure that crew are in your construction crew management software, you also check that everyone is wearing their complete PPEs and complying with the safety rules and regulations you set.
