It’s been discovered that construction workers throughout the UK could be using hard hats and other safety gear that is sub-standard.





The concerns have surfaced around personal protective equipment (PPE) on the market that doesn’t conform to official safety standards and which won’t offer the level of protection a user would expect it to.





This is a growing problem throughout the PPE industry. As a supplier of PPE we hold ourselves to the highest standards and that’s why we support the new European PPE Directive which closes a loophole enabling companies to sell sub-standard products without being accountable for their quality.





It’s common knowledge that over the last couple of years there has been cheap, substandard and even some counterfeit PPE materials available in the UK, much of these products to those not in the know lot legitimate and the problems with compliance is often difficult to spot.





By making retailers and distributors of PPE responsible and accountable for ensuring the products they buy and sell are legitimate and offer the appropriate protection we hope to see an end to the era where PPE that’s unfit for purpose is available in the UK.





When reviewing PPE in 2012, the TUC said: “Counterfeit PPE is on the increase, with well-established product brands or designs being the primary target. In some sectors over half the products tested were counterfeit.”





View our full range of Safety Gear or read more about the proposed PPE changes to http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/mechanical/personal-protective-equipment/index_en.htm