How Safe is Personal Protective Equipment at Sea?

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is vital in reducing the risk of workers experiencing injuries, but it’s not always fit for purpose. Researchers at Solent University are now calling on as many seafarers as possible to complete a questionnaire to help explore experiences of using PPE on board ships.

The Seafarers’ Personal Protective Equipment project is a new piece of research being run by the university in collaboration with CHIRP Maritime, and project lead, Dr Helen Devereux, says: “PPE is vital in reducing the risk of workers experiencing injuries, but we know anecdotally and from our own experience that PPE is not always suitable on board ships. We know that when PPE is not comfortable or practical to wear, workers are less likely to use it, so finding out about seafarers’ day-to-day experiences of using PPE is really important.”

This project aims to explore a wide variety of seafarers’ day-to-day experience of using PPE on board, and the more seafarers who complete the questionnaire, the more that can be learnt about the PPE provided to those working at sea, difficulties being experienced and how these could be addressed to improve working conditions for seafarers in the future. 

To take part in the survey, please click here.  

For further information, contact Dr Helen Devereux at helen.devereux@solent.ac.uk.