Due to the development and advancement of industry safety regulations and voluntary standard performances, there is an increase in usage of Fire Resistant clothing. A national consensus standard has set guidelines for employees who have access to electrical systems, energised component, arc flash, fire, grease, gas and oil. This is the reason why FR clothing is a must in your job site.
Always ask three questions when it comes to FR:
- Does my company require Flame resistant clothing for my employees or any section of employees?
If the need has been established then comes the second and third question:
- How do I comply with industry standards?
- Where can I buy these type of garments?
FR clothing helps you to protect from any hazards related to fire, arc flash, oil and gas etc. Wearing this garment can reduce the risk but people like us think wearing Fire resistant garments will eliminate all hazards or injury occurred by fire and flash. That's not the case. Also, you can purchase this outfit through site that are available online.
Here are some importances of FR clothing for employees who are exposed to workplace hazards:
- This type of outfits self-extinguishes or helps in resisting ignition when exposed to fire
- These are made of a fabric that is fire resistance. Even if it catches fire, this will not melt onto the skin
- This outfit provides thermal insulation, which creates protection when the employee is near any flame or flash
- Because of the fabric in the attire, it does not break open by exposing the skin to injury
- Increase in the chance of survival as it reduces the effect of damage
- FR clothing can reduce the burn percentage by 50% keeping the burn injury below the threshold.
- Here are some statistics that show the necessity of wearing FR clothing for safety measures:
- Burnt and fatalities cause most severe injuries for not wearing a fire-resistant dress which has induced the ignition and continued to burn. Wearing an FR attire could have self-extinguished the fire.
- Approx 200 or number of people are admitted to burnt hospital every year due to burn by fire or a severe burn by arc flash
- Arc flash explosion is widespread in the industry which injures many employees, and they are admitted to hospital every year.
All the FR clothing is designed mainly to avoid burnt and arc blaze event. These are the two most common injury which effects for wearing non FR clothing. This explosion increases the temperature from 1000 F to 1900F.
A robust electrical current passes through ionised air created by an electrical fault is known as Arc electronic flash. An arc explosion generates extremely high radiant heat due to which the temperature can reach up to 35000 degrees F. Therefore any job site with qualifying electrical hazards should comply with FR standards to minimise the risk of burn injury.
FR industry should abide by the rules stated by the OSHA regulations. Therefore understanding the benefits of FR clothing is much more critical for employees and an employer is required.
- Provides safety and health of employees in the industry
- Inducing safety culture by protecting yourself from maximum injury through burnt
- It will reduce the accident, time lost from work due to injury and accident claims, as the companies insure all these accidents. Therefore any accident that takes place in the company premises the organisation is solely responsible for that. Thus complying with FR standards can save employers from the insurance claims.
- Last but not the least you can avoid the OSHA fines due to non-compliance of OSHA standards and regulation.
These were the reason, importance, benefits of wearing FR clothing. When you abide by the rules, you are half way done by saving yourself from this hazardous situation.
