Take care when selecting respiratory protection

Arco, a leading UK safety company, is encouraging businesses to ensure their workers are fitted with adequate respiratory protection by supporting Clean Air? Take Care!, a joint initiative between the British Safety Industry Federation (BSIF) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The campaign aims to help reduce occupational respiratory disease caused by ineffective use of respiratory protection in the workplace, by raising awareness of the issues that surround it and highlighting the importance of selecting the correct respiratory protective equipment.

Approximately 5.5 million workers are exposed to respiratory hazards in the workplace and recent research by both the BSIF and HSE has highlighted concerns that RPE is not being effectively selected, used and maintained in a significant proportion of workplaces where a respiratory hazard exists, leaving workers at risk.

Paul Ness, Divisional Director – Safety Equipment at Arco said: “Arco fully supports the Clean Air? Take Care! initiative from the BSIF and HSE. Ill-fitting or inadequate respiratory protection can put workers health at risk. We provide a full range of respiratory solutions to help ensure workers are fully protected and our team of experts can help customers select what is best for their business.”

Arco can offer a solution to all respiratory equipment needs with a choice of disposable, reusable, powered and air-fed products. Arco’s specialists are also able to offer guidance on how to comply with legislation.

Clean Air? Take Care! was launched in March and has support from other industry stakeholders including IOSH, IOM, Safety Groups UK, BOHS, IIRSM and TUC. It is focused on delivering improvements in the correct selection, provision, use and maintenance of Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) by offering simple advice to users and specifiers of RPE to enable them to correctly select and implement an adequate full respiratory protection programme.