Is there ever a reason for requiring too much PPE?

It’s important to reassess your PPE requirements for a lot of reasons, which we’ve discussed. But, you also don’t want workers wearing PPE for no reason. In some cases, PPE may have been required when an operation just started, or just because someone decided “everyone needs to wear safety glasses” in the warehouse. But, that decision may have been made 10 years ago and just carried forward. Things change — so make sure that your PPE requirements match the hazards.

While you’d rather err on the side of caution, there’s no need to have workers wearing PPE that’s truly not needed. You wouldn’t think of putting a worker in a fall protection harness if they weren’t exposed to fall hazards, but often we’ll put workers in safety glasses just because that seems to be what you do in an industrial environment. While true in most cases, not always — so the point, just reevaluate periodically and when things change, looking for both missing PPE that’s needed and also any that may not be needed anymore.