Responding to the needs of female mine-workers and industrial labourers who have been struggling with ill-fitting personal protective equipment (PPE) designed to fit men for decades, on-site PPE management solutions provider Select PPE has launched Africa’s first range of custom-designed PPE for women.

Since its inception in 1998, Select PPE has recognised the challenges faced by its clients’ female employees, inspiring the company to embark on seven months of intensive market research to identify problems and how they could best be mitigated.

“Representatives from our in-house hygiene department visited several mines and inter-viewed the female employees who listed the different challenges they faced underground, as a result of PPE not being suited to their needs,” sales director Dries van Tonder tells Mining Weekly.

Some of the issues identified included ill- fitting gumboots, made for men’s more stream-lined calves and flat arches, whereas many of the women have fuller calves and higher arches.

Van Tonder says wearing ill-fitting foot pro-tection makes women more prone to injury and ill-fitting gloves also limit the dexterity of a female employee, which is why Select PPE has engaged with gloves manufacturers to deliver narrower, tighter-fitting gloves for women.

Additional challenges included the fit of overalls, as a woman’s hips are typically wider than a man’s. Women’s legs are also propor-tionately longer than men’s, even though women are generally shorter than men.

Hard hats also tend to be dangerously loose for women, as research has reportedly shown that the female head is, on average, 1.3 cm smaller than the male head.

As a result, Select PPE’s new hard hats made for women have an inner ratchet that is 4 cm smaller than the smallest option currently available, thereby ensuring a safer and more comfortable fit.

Select PPE also ensured that hearing and eye protective gear was redesigned with the comfort and protection of female labourers in mind.

Other than spending time underground with female miners, members from Select PPE’s hygiene department also spent time on the job with women at several steel manufacturing plants across the country to ascertain what types of jobs they were typically employed to do.

Moreover, the team worked with regular women’s clothing manufacturers to determine the key differences between women’s and men’s clothing.

“We delivered our findings to our product manufacturers who worked on female-specific PPE that provides a more comfortable fit,” says Van Tonder.

Select PPE research revealed that, during the third quarter of 2012 alone, more than 2.6-million women in South Africa required some form of PPE as part of the work require-ment – a number that is continuously increasing because of the significant potential for women to find employment in several industries, including agriculture, mining, manufacturing, utilities and construction.

Changing Legislation
With these issues in mind, the departments of Mineral Resources (DMR) and Labour have agreed to pursue the implementation of new legislation with regard to the issuing of purpose-designed PPE for women working in industrial operations.

“Currently, the Mine Health and Safety Act (MHSA) does not regulate the provision of PPE for different gender groups,” says Select PPE occupational hygienist Amelda Cilliers.

She points out, however, that although the law does not regulate the provision of women-specific PPE, it does obligate employers to protect the health and safety of all employees, including women.

Moreover, the MHSA stipulates that “every employer must ensure that sufficient quantities of all necessary PPE are available so that every employee who is required to use that equipment is able to do so”.

Cilliers further points out that the general safety regulations promulgated under the Occupational Health and Safety Act include a section on the provision, maintenance and training of personal safety equipment, which does not differentiate between genders.

“Based on these findings, there is a need to regulate the provision of PPE and facilities specifically for women.

Women, however, are not 100% protected, as a result of ill-fitting PPE, and employers are obliged to provide women with the correct PPE to protect them and comply with the law,” she says.

Cilliers tells Mining Weekly that the DMR is enforcing the provision of correct PPE for women and confirms that a change in regulation is imminent.