With a value of approximately US$84.5 billion in 2024, the global personal protective equipment (PPE) market is expected to grow another $43.6 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research estimates CMM previously reported in June.
Increased demand for PPE is largely being driven by growing worker safety awareness, as well as a surge in demand in the healthcare, military, and law enforcement sectors following the COVID-19 pandemic—particularly for equipment such as masks, gloves, and gowns.
Mark Warner, national sales manager at The Bullen Cos., has been in the professional cleaning industry for roughly 40 years and said people’s increased level of awareness for safety is the biggest factor in the PPE industry today. “People have become much more attuned to the fact that they really shouldn’t go to work if they’re sick, and if they are not feeling well, maybe they should wear a mask to not get their coworkers sick. None of that was a mainstream concept prior to 2020,” Warner said. “That whole level of awareness has amped up tenfold, maybe a hundredfold, from what it was in 2019 and before.”
The role of education
Safety starts with worker education on cleaning and maintenance procedures as well as the proper use of chemicals and PPE.
“Without having that [education] habit up front, you find yourself explaining why somebody got injured after the fact,” Warner said. “And that’s not a good situation for anyone.”
Wearing PPE is just part of the equation.
“Make sure that workers have had training on how to put [PPE] on and how to take it off,” Warner said. “One of the worst things that can happen is somebody is wearing the right gear, but they’re wearing it incorrectly. The result of wearing it incorrectly: they aren’t actually protecting themselves.”
Warner’s advice is particularly relevant in wearing equipment such as masks and respirators. This type of equipment should go through a fit test process, as recommended by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), to ensure there are no breaches that unfiltered air can pass through.
“All of these [protection considerations] are really relevant to employers, because all of them have a potential liability if something happens to a frontline worker,” Warner said.
Not only can training help keep workers safe, David Swindle II, True Cleaning Solutions founder and CEO, emphasized that it can help businesses stay up-to-date on safety protocols.
“They need to know to train their employees from the get-go on being able to use PPE,” Swindle said. “That is a great opportunity for them to work with their local suppliers. Our industry is very well educated.”
Swindle added that several new tools have become available, so attending tradeshows, and working with manufacturer and distributor representatives can provide the latest information on PPE.
Safety do’s and don’ts
With nearly 40 years of cleaning experience, Swindle believes one of the most significant traits of a professional is awareness.
“One of the biggest do’s is to be aware,” he said. “[Cleaning professionals] should be looking at safety data sheets and product labels for recommendations of what PPE is going to be needed for the jobs they’re doing.”
Likewise, one of the best ways to prepare for danger is conducting a risk assessment before each job.
“A risk assessment is going to help to identify where we can eliminate potential risks, even before getting to that PPE,” Swindle said. “If we can’t eliminate it, then [we can] reduce the possible risk. PPE is our last line of defense, so it’s really important that, in doing this process, we look for ways that we can eliminate potential hazards for the employees, our frontline workers, and keep them safe.”
The previous advice leads to some of the greatest don’ts in the industry today.
“One of the biggest mistakes is employers not doing risk assessments,” Swindle said. “When they fail to do that, they’re not aware necessarily of what they need. Along those lines, [they are] making assumptions that they have what they need.”
For example, chemical dispensing systems often contain very concentrated chemicals. If employees don’t have the appropriate PPE, such as face goggles or shields and gloves, these concentrated chemicals can easily harm them, Swindle explained.
Further, managers shouldn’t assume that employees will know the proper protective equipment to use or that the client will provide appropriate PPE. Swindle advised that the employer is responsible for providing appropriate PPE for each work task.
Moreover, Warner emphasized the importance of properly donning and doffing PPE—one of the most overlooked practices for professional cleaners—particularly with gloves.
When a glove may be contaminated by a toxin, caustic material, or pathogen, cleaners should not stick their fingers down inside the glove’s cuff and peel it back the way one might take off a pair of
latex gloves after washing dishes. Instead, using a gloved hand, professionals should pinch the glove on their other hand in the palm and gently pull it off, turning it inside out as they draw it down their hand. Then they can place a piece of the removed glove (which is now inside out) over the palm of the other glove, using it as a barrier as they pinch that palm, turning the second glove inside out as they remove it. This removal method ensures that anything that may have been on the outside of the gloves is now on the inside, so they can handle the used gloves with bare hands without any possibility of danger or harm.
Workers also need to handle other forms of PPE—such as masks, face protection, and eyewear—in a proper manner that prevents contamination. For example, on masks, the elastic bands that go behind the wearer’s ears are the least likely area to become contaminated.
“Don’t [handle] it wrong, because these are things related to health or damage to your health,” Warner said. “Do training on how to don and doff PPEs. Don’t let people figure that one out the hard way.”
Protection from head to toe
While gloves are typically the first kind of safety gear that workers think to use, Warner and Swindle agreed that eye protection is an underused or misused piece of equipment.
“It’s one of the most often overlooked [form of protection] in the industry, but it’s a critical one,” Swindle explained. “There’s so many situations when chemicals can be splashed in our eyes, or
things can get in our eyes. An example would be when we’re pressure washing, with the potential for getting a lot of stuff on our face and in our eyes.”
Warner described eyes as portals of entry for infectious pathogens. When cleaning something overhead or in a way that puts you at risk of overspray wafting into the eyes, eye protection is every bit as important as gloves.
“What I tend to see out there is people who aren’t wearing prescription glasses of any kind, and they’re working without any form of protection over their eyes,” Warner said. “That primarily tells me that they really haven’t had the level of education and training they need to have. Because if they knew what you and I know about this, they would be horrified to go in that environment without something to cover their eyes.”
Both Swindle and Warner also stressed foot protection as another overlooked form of PPE. For example, burns on the feet below the surface of the skin, where people don’t have as many pain receptors, can happen because of a lack of proper protection while using highly alkaline floor cleaning chemicals.
“The most horrific part about it is that people can be in the process of being burned and not know it,” Warner said.
To avoid this and similar situations, Warner highlights the importance of education and protection for professionals and newcomers alike.
“I’m a huge advocate of proper footwear,” Warner said. “Although it’s not mandated by OSHA or any regulatory body, it is something that I mandate when I’m out involved with overwatching a crew.”
A symbol of professionalism
Beyond protection, another crucial role of PPE is its representation of professionalism.
“First off, gloves not only are a form of protection, but they’re also a signal to anybody watching that they’re looking at a professional,” Warner explained. “It is part of the uniform of a professional technician, and nothing looks worse than seeing somebody cleaning as a professional but not wearing proper safety gear. Kind of like watching somebody work on the highway without a safety vest on, you kind of question whether they really belong there.”
Warner emphasized that wearing a uniform or standardized, color-coded clothing is best practice for independent contract workers.
“Whether it’s khaki pants and a blue polo shirt, or an actual uniform, it’s a way for people to recognize that those folks belong there,” Warner said. “That’s real important in office buildings, because people want to know that the people they see inside the building belong there.”
A timeless concern
Worker needs and product innovations assure the PPE industry will continue to change, however Warner and Swindle affirm that concern for worker safety never will.
“The biggest thing that has come out of the pandemic is we started to think more about how to protect our frontline employees,” Swindle said. “As long as we as employers, business owners, trainers, and experts in the industry continue to be thinking about our frontline employees, we’re going to be thinking about their safety. And PPE is one of those important elements of worker safety.”
