CSA Group report studies impact of poorly fitting PPE on women
A report prepared by the CSA Group finds that women are being disproportionately impacted by a lack of gender-responsive personal protective equipment (PPE).
The report, Canadian Women’s Experiences with Personal Protective Equipment in the Workplace, looks at the experiences of nearly 3,000 women working in a variety of trades. The findings are telling.
For example, while 9.3 million women of working age participate in Canada’s labour market, just 6 percent of them say they wear PPE that is purposely designed to fit their bodies.
Although PPE is considered to be the last line of defence when it comes to safety at work, it is widely used by employers because it is a simple and inexpensive way to control exposure to hazards or may provide supplementary protection where other controls are not adequately protective.
For these reasons, it is paramount that the PPE fits each worker properly, that it provides maximal and effective protection, and that the workers can trust it to protect them and prevent injury.
More than one-third of the respondents told researchers that the PPE they use at work is designed for men, 85 percent said that they have been hampered at work by their PPE, and approximately half indicated that they must adjust their PPE each time they put it on, or at least once per shift.
The three most common problems reported by respondents were: their PPE does not fit properly (50 percent), it is uncomfortable to wear (43 percent), and the selection of women-specific PPE is inadequate (35 percent).
As a result, the respondents said they often paid out of pocket to source equipment that fits better. More than a third – 38 percent – said they incorporated workarounds to modify their PPE, such as using rubber bands, safety pins, or duct tape to shorten fall-arrest gear, secure work gloves, shorten sleeves, and prevent their pant legs from tripping them.
Troublingly, 28 percent reported not using all required PPE because of fitting problems, while nearly 40 percent reported experiencing an injury or incident related to their ill-fitting PPE.
“Women are not just scaled down versions of men,” says Jennifer Teague, Vice President, Standards Research & Planning, CSA Group. “PPE needs to be designed with everyone in mind. This is why developing best practices are so important and can help in the transition from ‘one size fits all’ to more inclusive PPE. Standards, when informed by current and accurate anthropometric data, can set the roadmap for developing gender-responsive PPE to help improve the health, safety and protection of women in the workplace.”
The research outlines several gaps that are hindering the development of gender-responsive PPE, including the collection and availability of comprehensive Canadian-specific anthropometric data representative of the contemporary working population, and the need for consistent PPE regulation across Canada that explicitly and intentionally addresses the needs of women in the workplace.
The research also identifies the opportunity for further coordination by government, standards development organizations, manufacturers, suppliers and workplace representatives to increase the availability and selection of PPE available to women.
“CSA Group is committed to safety, social good, and holding the future to a higher standard – a future where female workers are equally considered and protected,” said Mary Cianchetti, President, Standards, CSA Group. “In an era where we are seeing women leaving many different professions from health care to trades, having a more deliberate and inclusive approach to something as fundamental as PPE seems like an absolute necessity.”
CSA Group says it has started to assess its existing portfolio of PPE standards to determine opportunities for improvement as it relates to women.
The group is also working with the standards development community to increase the representation of women in standardization and to strive towards reflecting the diverse needs of Canadians.