Personal and Protective Equipment

Some personal and protective equipment (PPE) is used to prevent potentially infectious material, like blood or saliva, from getting into the body. PPE can be used to protect people in many ways. See the pictures below for more examples. 

These are face masks. A face mask is used to prevent potentially infected material from entering the mouth, nose, and lungs. Many places required face masks during the covid-19 pandemic. Wearing masks reduced the risk of spreading this deadly infection. 

These are slip resistant shoes. Slip resistant shoes are commonly called non-slipped shoes. People who work in restaurants or other workplace environments where the floor is wet and slippery are required to wear these to prevent them from slipping and getting hurt. Wearing non-slip shoes protects a person from getting hurt. 

These goggles protect the eyes from debris or potentially infectious material. Debris is different than potentially infectious material. Debris could be sawdust from a chainsaw or dust. A person wears goggles to protect their eyes. Infectious material is usually something that has blood on it or some other bodily fluid. 

There are also different types of goggles. In the picture above there are ski-goggles. When skiing it is possible to get snow and ice in ones eyes. The ski-goggles also protect the eyes from the cold wind. Snow and ice are not infectious, so snow and ice would be debris. A person could say, "I wear ski-goggles to protect my eyes from cold weather and debris." The debris is the same as snow and ice. 

These latex free disposable gloves are just gloves. These gloves protect the hands from potentially infectious material like blood. Doctors, dentists, nurses, and other medical professionals wear gloves to prevent blood or other bodily fluids from getting on their hands. These gloves are different than winter gloves. Winter gloves protect people's hands from exposure to the cold weather. 

A helmet is used to protect a person's head. There are fire helmets, football helmets, and bike helmets. All helmets protect the head from injury. Construction workers and road workers often wear helmets to protect their heads from material that could fall from heavy machinery.

This is a reflective vest. Construction workers wear this to make it easy to see them. When lights from a car, truck, van, bus, or other vehicle shines on the reflective vest, the person driving can see the person. Reflective vests prevent a person from being hit by a vehicle. Cart pushers who work in busy parking lots at grocery stores also have to wear this type of personal and protective equipment.