Over the past year the British Safety Industry Federation (BSIF) has highlighted some of the problems encountered by substandard personal protective equipment (PPE) in the marketplace. This can make it difficult for anyone selecting and purchasing PPE - an already challenging task not made any easier by the plethora of eager distributors.
Distributors vary on a wide spectrum from traditional business to business delivering products from a manufacturer, through to retailers and high street chains delivering products directly to the consumer. Within this spectrum, distributors will have different objectives and varying levels of specialist health and safety or product knowledge. Although the majority provide suitable products and good advice, the current economic market could lead to a heavy focus on price making the distributor a target for counterfeit and illegal products. Thereforewithout extra care in the procurement of safety equipment to ensure that it is a legitimate product, there is a strong possibility that people will be at risk.
The BSIF is committed to eliminating counterfeit and illegal safety equipment from the British market place and sees it as its responsibility to engage with as many distributors as possible to encourage the supply of quality, fit for purpose products. Its Registered Safety Supplier scheme allows participants who adhere to the strict criteria, to use the scheme shield to identify their organisation and products as ‘genuine and safe’. This ensures the customer is working with a reputable supplier who is committed to issuing genuine and suitable products and offering trustworthy advice.
If using an unregistered supplier, purchasing vigilance is essential. Products can come from anywhere from any number of manufacturers, but suppliers should be able to tell you the brand name and product details. If a product is unusually cheap, does not state performance and/or carries suspicious approval markings, it should trigger further investigation.
Discussions between the BSIF, BIS (Department for Business Innovation and Skills), LACORS (Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services) and the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) have identified a mutual desire to ensure that unsafe products are eliminated from the UK market.
These substandard safety products and personal protective equipment (PPE) cause significant problems and the BSIF has received a number of reports of products not performing to the standards being claimed, equipment with falsified CE certificates and cheap copies of propriety PPE which appear not to have been subjected to the requirement for them to be independently tested.
Mike Ramirez, Technical Manager, Arco Limited, fully supports the BSIF initiative to eliminate non-compliant PPE from the UK Market. “As the UK market leader, Arco has always followed a rigorous testing regime for its branded products to ensure continued conformance against EN standards. This includes certification before the product is launched into the market and regular due diligence testing throughout the life of the product. The safety of the people using our products is of upmost importance.”
Within the BSIF's Counterfeit and Illegal products campaign, the BSIF has launched its Registered Safety Supplier Scheme that is designed to assist buyers of safety critical products find quality supply sources. Participants are able to use the scheme shield if they qualify adhering to a strict set of criteria, to identify their organisation and products as ‘genuine and safe’. Any company which does not comply risks losing its Registered Safety Supplier shield and possibly, membership of the BSIF.
David Hall, Chairman for the BSIF comments: “The issue of counterfeit and illegal products is growing in the safety industry. One of the core aims of the BSIF has always been to help improve safety and health in the work place, therefore I’m sure this new initiative will continue to be at the heart of BSIF activity for some time.
“By joining this initiative we hope to give users of PPE equipment greater re-assurance and send a clear signal to those who sell or produce counterfeit and illegal products, that there is no place for these in the UK market.”
With a market that is increasingly being impacted with counterfeit and illegal products, purchasing vigilance is essential to protect people at work. If a product is unusually cheap, has an unknown brand name, does not state performance and/or has the name of an unknown manufacturer, it should trigger further investigation. It is relatively easy to check whether the product is genuine and "safe" to use - if in doubt, call the BSIF who will explain how to go about it.
