At the sharp end of safety

David Lummis looks at whether safety footwear with
anti-perforation soles are as safe as you would expect

Anti-perforation midsoles in
safety footwear are designed to
prevent entry of sharp objects
into the wearer’s foot when they
inadvertently step upon a nail or similar
object. The midsole is frequently made
of steel and more recently tough
puncture resistant material, such as
Kevlar, which is embedded within the
sole of the safety shoe or boot.

Industries such as construction have a
high incidence of puncture injuries and
wearing safety footwear that not only
prevents crushing to the upper foot, but
prevents those midsole penetration
injuries that can be so debilitating is
essential.

All safety footwear sold in the UK
should be manufactured in compliance
with standards EN 20344 and EN 20345,
which clearly states the performance
requirements of shoes or boots to resist
crushing or puncture, along with a
number of other performance criteria.

These standards, originally established in
2004, ensure the product will ‘do what it
says on the tin’.

However, the Ministry of Labour in
France has reported a number of instances
where sole penetration has occurred,
despite the product being tested and
passed as conforming to the required
standard. These concerns were originally
raised in 2008, and in 2010 the French
authorities brought it to the attention of
the European Standards authorities.

Analysis of the problem indicated that
there were two major problems:
On occasions, metallic anti-penetration
inserts are oxidising as the safety
footwear is in use and may no longer
offer protection.

The existing test for penetration was
not suitable to adequately test the new
materials and in some cases the
material inserts were so narrow they
did not offer enough protection across
the width of the shoe.

Immediate work started to update the
standard and overcome these problems,
and a new standard was published at the
end of 2011. The new EN 20344 includes
a corrosive test that will rule out the poor
quality metallic inserts which caused the
oxidising problem and an additional
penetration test has been introduced for
the new non-metallic midsoles to ensure
their performance. The 2004 penetration
test for metallic midsoles continues in the
new standard.

Employer duty of care
However, what of the existing products for
sale in the marketplace or perhaps on
your feet right now? Is there any easy way
to determine if you are still protected?
The simple answer is no. Without either
destruction testing of the footwear or
cutting into the sole itself to see the antipenetration
inner sole, it is not possible to
be sure how your safety footwear will
perform against nails and such like. Before
going any further though, it is important
to state that the incidences of penetration
are very small when compared to the
volume sold.

In terms of the laws relating to PPE, the
products continue to be in conformance
with the required standards and in this
respect can be legally worn. However,
employers have a care of duty to ensure
the products they supply will overcome
the hazard faced and this may not be the
case with older safety footwear that has an
anti-penetration midsole.

It is very likely that safety footwear
purchased recently will meet the new
standard and offer full protection. Once
the problem was highlighted and the
cause understood, most of the reputable
branded manufacturers converted their
metallic midsoles to non-corrosive
varieties which easily meet the standard’s
demands. (It would be fair to say that the
majority were already supplying higher
quality midsoles before this issue was
raised).

As a rule of thumb, the cheaper
metallic midsoles were used in the more
basic and low cost products, to enable
them to achieve attractive selling prices.

These midsoles are much more prone to
oxidising. Therefore if you are wearing a
higher quality, branded product it is
significantly more likely you are
adequately protected, but this cannot be
guaranteed without destructive testing.

For the future, this problem will be
completely overcome by adherence to the
new EN 20344 2011 standard and all
reputable suppliers and manufacturers
will advise you.

David Lummis is chief executive of the
British Safety Industry Federation