Personal Protective Equipment in Housekeeping is Essential

PPE, an acronym for personal protective equipment, is often heard in industries where maintaining a clean and hygiene environment is of the utmost importance – hospitals, clinics, social care centers, etc.

Personal protective equipment in housekeeping requires the use of special clothing because the potential harm that may come from cleaning activities like mopping, for example, or chemical substances like bleach cannot be ignored.

As a hotel manager, for instance, you have a duty to consider this kind of protection for your housekeeping staff, because on any given day, your valuable staff may be exposed to a variety of substances which can pose a serious health risk.

Why different types of personal protective equipment in housekeeping is so important

Promoting on-the-job safety should be a daily goal for any organization, and this especially holds true for those operating in sectors where housekeeping is a day-to-day service.

When it comes to daily cleaning, managers often find it challenging to equip their staff with the appropriate PPE – protective equipment in housekeeping that complies with the correct safety and quality standards and offers their workers the right level of protection in order to keep them safe and productive.

While wearing gloves and masks is something that many housekeeping managers are probably implementing strictly, there may be situations which may require the use of additional PPE to protect workers – such as chemical spills, mold exposure or other uncalled for events in commercial buildings.

How to choose between the different types of personal protective equipment available

Housekeepers are often exposed to many risks throughout the day – for example, they may come into contact with chemicals which are stored around to-be-cleaned areas. However, there are also chemicals they must handle regularly in order to perform the actual cleaning.

In order for managers and supervisors to understand what kind of protective equipment in housekeeping is required, they must first identify potential on-the-job hazards.

For instance, right off the bat, any area where a large amount of chemicals and cleaning solutions are stored poses a potential risk.

The OHSA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) advises floor managers to regularly check their respective material safety datasheets to better understand the different personal protective equipment types that can be worn since workers interact with specific chemicals used for cleaning – in addition to the standard precautionary measures required to work safely in any given area, of course.

With this said, chemicals aren’t the only potential health hazards at a site. Biohazards like infectious diseases and bloodborne pathogens are serious dangers that healthcare managers must cope with on a day-to-day basis. However, understanding what kind of personal protective equipment in housekeeping to use can drastically cut down on these dangers and potential health risks. For instance, you could establish the level of isolation required based on three distinct categories – droplet, contact or airborne, and place color-coded cards at doorways and around hospital rooms – so that your staff always knows what kind of PPE to wear.

4 Types of Personal Protective Equipment required in Housekeeping

Respirators

Perhaps one of the most common types of personal protective equipment used in housekeeping are respirators. Many managers direct their workers to use respirators in order to protect the facial region and respiratory tract when working in areas where dangerous chemicals and other airborne dangers are abundant.

Most respirators are a burden to the wearer, causing claustrophobia and making it difficult to breathe. The hot air accumulating inside can be a nuisance and not tolerated well in many people, in addition to dealing with glasses fogging up.

However, the respirators and face masks we offer at TRUE PPE fit snugly around the wearer’s face. An accompanying nose bridge can be used to secure the top even more snugly so that the hot air does not fog up glasses.

The KN95 protective face mask, for instance, has been recommended by WHO and offers a very comfortable fit, both around the face and ears as well. It comes with 95% filter efficiency which means it will effectively filter out particles smaller than 0.3 microns. It offers a very high level of protection in enclosed spaces, and plenty of protection to wearers as they work in hazardous areas where there is a lot of smoke, dust, pollen or other airborne particles like germs, bacteria and viruses.

For more casual, everyday protection, our Lycra face mask comes with a replaceable HEPA filter and stretches easily to form a very comfortable yet snug fit around the face. It can be washed, disinfected and worn again multiple times.

Gloves

When working in hazardous areas, your staff need the correct level of body protection. There are various kinds of gloves available including nitrile, butyl, latex and rubber, all of which offer a unique level of protection, depending on the task at hand.

Our Nitrile gloves are manufactured to the highest safety and quality standards and medically certified to give you protection from a range of pathogens, viruses and bacteria.

A word of caution, however: gloves are usually meant for single-use, so it’s always a good idea to properly wash and sanitize your hands once you have disposed them in the bin.

Goggles

Goggles are absolutely mandatory if your workers are only wearing a half-mask respirator. Medical grade goggles offer protection from accidental liquid spills, as well as dust, mould and other airborne particles which can prove highly adverse towards eye and lung health.

Slush boots

Housekeeping work often requires wearing slush boots, or chemical-resistant shoes if working in higher-than-normal contaminated areas. These are also to be discarded after a single use.

At TRUE PPE, we offer a range of medically certified and CDC-approved personal protective equipment which you can take advantage of to keep your housekeeping staff safe, productive and healthy. From N95 face masks to Lycra masks with HEPA filter, hand sanitizers, disinfectants and disinfecting fogger machines – we offer the very best in protective equipment for housekeeping at bargain prices.

Shop with confidence today, knowing that you’ve invested in medical grade PPE approved by the CDC and WHO.