The following references aid in recognizing the need for personal protective equipment (PPE) and provides information about proper PPE selection and usage.

Related Safety and Health Topics Pages

• Eye and Face Protection
• Fall Protection
• Respiratory Protection

OSHA Publications and Fact Sheets on PPE

• Personal Protective Equipment. OSHA Fact Sheet (Publication 3603), (2012). Also available in Portuguese and Español. This is one in a series of informational fact sheets highlighting OSHA programs, policies or standards.
• Personal Protective Equipment. OSHA Publication 3151, (2023). Discusses the types of equipment most commonly used to protect the head, torso, arms, hands, and feet. Additional topics include requirements, hazard assessment, selection, and employee training.
• Small Business Safety and Health Handbook. OSHA Publication 2209, (2022). Summarizes the benefits of an effective safety and health program, provides self-inspection checklists for employers to identify workplace hazards, and reviews key workplace safety and health resources for small businesses.
• OSHA Technical Manual. OSHA Directive TED 01-00-015 [TED 1-0.15A], (January 20, 1999). Section VIII of the OSHA Technical Manual describes the various types of clothing that are appropriate for use in chemical operations and provides recommendations in their selection and use.

OSHA eTools

• Electric Power: Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). (January 2010). Discusses PPE often used in electrical work.
• Respiratory Protection. (October 1998). Provides information on the development of respirator cartridge change schedules. Addresses respirator selection and other requirements of the standard.

PPE selection and managing workplace PPE programs

• Personal Protective Equipment. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Contains links to PPE related topics such as eye protection, hearing protection, skin exposures and protective clothing.
• Recommendations for Chemical Protective Clothing Database. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), (February 1998). Provides chemical protective clothing guidelines for chemicals listed in the NIOSH pocket guide.
• Personal Protective Technology Program. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), (June 2017). Evaluates and improves equipment worn by workers and develops interventions to protect them from hazards.
• National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Focuses expertise from many scientific disciplines to advance federal research on respirators and other personal protective technologies for workers. Also features links to PPE related topics.
• Personal Protective Equipment Compliance Guide. The University of Alabama. Provides information to employers working toward compliance with certain provisions of Subpart I of 29 CFR 1910.
• OSH Answers Fact Sheets: Designing an Effective PPE Program. Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS). Gives an overview of designing a personal protective equipment (PPE) program.
• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Chemical Hazards Emergency Medical Management (CHEMM). Provides a number of resources for managing an effective PPE program.

PPE Training Materials and Training Resources

• Assessment the Need for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). OSHA. A guide created by the OSHA Training Institute intended to help readers to conduct PPE assessments, includes assessment checklists.
• Personal Protective Equipment. OSHA. Includes a PPE PowerPoint presentation created by the OSHA Training Institute intended as an aid to authorized OSHA Outreach Instructors teaching PPE safety.
• PPE Workshop Lesson Plan. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Applicable for hazardous waste worker and emergency response training. Exercise for reinforcing and enhancing worker’s knowledge of PPE.

PPE in Agriculture

• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). National Ag Safety Database (NASD). Some tasks on the farm contain hazards that must be done wearing personal protective clothing and/or specialized safety equipment if workers are to be safe. This page discusses various hazards and PPE typically found on farms.
• Head, Eye, and Foot Protection for Farm Workers. Fact Sheet Penn State Extension. Discusses three types of personal protective equipment: protective headwear, eyewear, and footwear.
• Solutions for Living Personal Protective Equipment for Agriculture. University of Wyoming Extension. Discusses equipment and clothing that can help farmers and ranchers remain safe when working around the many hazards on farms and ranches.

PPE for Emergency Responders

• Emergency Preparedness and Response Resources. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Addresses respirators, protective clothing, latex allergy and eye protection as they relate to emergency response settings.
• Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG). U.S. Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). Provides guidance for firefighters, police, and other emergency services personnel who may be the first to arrive at the scene of a transportation incident involving a hazardous material. This guidebook was developed jointly by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Transport Canada, and the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation of Mexico (SCT).
• Guide for the Selection of Personal Protection Equipment for Emergency First Responders. Developed by the Office of Law Enforcement Standards at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Guide 102–06 (2nd Edition), (January 2007). Provides information on personal protection equipment (PPE) for consideration by emergency first responders when purchasing and using PPE, including duration of protection, dexterity/mobility, laundering, and use/reuse.

Additional PPE resources

• Exemption for Religious Reason from Wearing Hard Hats. STD 01-06-005 [STD 1-6.5], (June 20, 1994). OSHA Instruction STD 1-6.5 dated June 20, 1994 states that OSHA has granted an exemption from citations to employers of employees who, for reasons of personal religious convictions, object to wearing hard hats in the workplace.
• Laboratory Safety. Environmental Health and Safety at Stony Brook University.

Many Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards require employers to provide personal protective equipment, when it is necessary to protect employees from job-related injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. With few exceptions, OSHA requires employers to pay for personal protective equipment when it is used to comply with OSHA standards. These typically include: hard hats, gloves, goggles, safety shoes, safety glasses, welding helmets and goggles, face shields, chemical protective equipment and fall protection equipment.

Training Material

• Employers Must Provide and Pay for PPE, Handout #7. OSHA training Institute created a training handout to help explain about employer payment for PPE rule.

Directives

• 29 CFR Part 1910, Subpart I, Enforcement Guidance for Personal Protective Equipment in General Industry. CPL 02-01-050, (February 10, 2011). Provides enforcement personnel with instructions for determining whether employers have complied with OSHA personal protective equipment (PPE) standards.

Federal Register Notices

• Employer Payment for Personal Protective Equipment; Final Rule. Final Rules 72:64341-64430, (November 15, 2007). Stipulates that the employer must pay for required PPE, except in the limited cases specified in the standard. Safety-toe protective footwear and prescription safety glasses were excepted from the employer payment requirement, in large part because these items were considered to be very personal in nature and were often worn off the jobsite.