ABSTRACT
Personal protective equipment (PPE), worn to minimize exposure to hazards, should be readily accessible and available, easy to do, and comfortable to wear. The term PPE refers to standalone items that, when worn, reduce one’s vulnerability to workplace hazards. PPE includes items such as gloves, goggles, earmuffs, safety shoes, respirators, and entire body suits that people don to shield themselves. PPE manufacturers have gone to great lengths to make their products available to those in need, for both for practical and commercial reasons. Some hard hats are designed to be stacked in locations where many people might face an urgent need to protect their heads, such as in earthquake-prone areas in Japan. Some PPE manufacturers have even developed PPE holders that a user can wear, or that can be integrated into equipment to make PPE available whenever the user needs it.
