New Guide Helps Interpret Safety Footwear Standards

Phil Black - PII Editor 07/11/2014

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Staffordshire health and safety solutions specialist, Safety Forward and safety footwear provider, Gorilla Safety Footwear have teamed up to produce a simple to interpret guide to enable employers and employees operating in hazardous environments to effortlessly select adequate safety footwear, in a bid to reduce foot, toe and ankle injuries.

With slips and trips injuring 109 out of every 100,000 workers each year in the UK and thousands more suffering from ankle injuries, fractures to toes and metatarsal bones, and punctures from stepping on sharp objects, it is most important that employees provide workers with safety footwear suited to all possible environmental risks. Safety footwear should also conform to the relevant European safety standards. However, with a number of augmentations throughout the years, various classification numbers and numerous optional features and properties, with often ambiguous acronyms, means that ensuring the most suitable and adequate safety footwear is selected and worn is not as straightforward as it might be.

In a bid to enable health and safety officers and staff alike to ensure that they are wearing safety footwear suitable for their particular industry, protecting against all relevant risks, Safety Forward and Gorilla Safety Footwear have prepared a simple to follow, single sheet pdf file that explains, firstly the relevant European safety standards applicable to safety boots, safety shoes and safety trainers, and also explains the meanings behind the numerous optional properties, including slip-resistance, conductive and insulation ratings. It goes on to detail the classification numbers that relate to manufacturing materials used.

Safety Forward’s Marisa Firkins commented; “Because we work with a broad spectrum of organisations providing health and safety consultancy and training, a frequent topic covered is that of Personal Protective Equipment, or P.P.E. Although very thorough, The Health and Safety Executive provides safety footwear standards information that is not particularly straightforward to follow and many of our clients are not initially sure exactly what type of safety footwear to select”. Marisa added; “By producing a straightforward, single-sheet pdf guide, we feel that individuals from most industries should gain a better grasp of the exact footwear staff should be wearing, something we hope should contribute towards lower rates of foot injuries”.

Safety Forward provides a broad array of Health and Safety services to clients throughout the UK, and includes; risk assessments, policies and procedures, accident investigation, audits, enforcement support, driver and fleet safety, workstation and DSE assessments, contractor management and hazardous environments assessments. Marisa’s background is in UK law enforcement where the selection of the right protective clothing was high on the agenda. Selecting the right equipment was an integral part of preparing the officers for dynamic risks they faced.

Gorilla Safety Footwear provides a safety boot, safety shoe and safety trainer to satisfy the requirements of all industries and hazardous environments. The company supplies the Rock Fall range of safety footwear, renowned for innovative, stylish and comfortable designs, all of which exceed relevant safety standards and classifications. Rock Fall launched the world’s first range of internal composite metatarsal boots to exceed European S3 safety standards and the Vixen range of safety footwear designed especially for women’s foot shapes and sizes.