REVIEW article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1586491
This article is part of the Research TopicEvaluating Organizational Health Culture: Tools and Impact on Workplace Health InterventionsView all 7 articles
Personal Protective Equipment for Laboratory Use
Provisionally accepted
- United States Department of Health and Human Services, Washington D.C., United States
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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Standard, outlined in 29 CFR 1910 Subpart I states that Protective gear -including personal protective clothing, respiratory equipment, and barriers or shields-must be supplied, properly used, and kept clean and functional whenever there are hazards present. These hazards may arise from processes, environmental conditions, chemicals, radiation, or mechanical sources that could potentially cause injury or harm bodily functions through skin contact, inhalation, or absorption. 1 Employers must supply PPE to their employees as determined by hazard assessments of the workplace and duties performed by employees. Employees for their part are required to use PPE as instructed to reduce exposure to occupational hazards and the likelihood of injury or illness, as appropriate. PPE includes all clothing (e.g., coats, gowns, gloves, shoe covers, boots) and other work accessories (e.g., respirators, face shields, safety glasses, goggles) intended to act as a barrier against workplace hazards or to be worn for protection, serving as the last line of defense in the hierarchy of safety controls. The OSHA PPE Standard includes requirements for selection of equipment, training requirements, records management, PPE selection guidelines and potential risk and hazard assessment. OSHA has standards that require such equipment meet or be equivalent to standards developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) or the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). This article provides an overview of the types of PPE, and considerations for their selection and use to address laboratory hazards.
Keywords: Personal protective equipment, Laboratory safety, Respiratory protection, Hand protection, Face protection, Hearing protection, Body protection, Foot protection
Received: 03 Mar 2025; Accepted: 26 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Pillai, Bradberry, Newcomer, Pittas and Mathern. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Segaran P Pillai, United States Department of Health and Human Services, Washington D.C., United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.