The importance of safe communication

Why is it so important to have PPE that works together to help facilitate communication? Communicating clearly while wearing hearing and respiratory protection can be challenging. If workers remove PPE to communicate, protection may be compromised.

Impact on respiratory protection EPF

The Effective Protection Factor (EPF) is the actual protection rate factor achieved based on the wear time for each worker. Removing a respirator for just a few minutes to communicate may impact protection.

Not wearing a face mask for just 5% of the time you are exposed reduces the effective protection factor by 30%*.

Impact on hearing protection

Effective protection drops when hearing protectors are not worn.** See the impact of just 1 hour without hearing protection over an 8 hour shift:

PPE options with features that help allow communication without removing PPE may help encourage wear time.

Would you like to find out how a holistic approach to PPE can help achieve 100% wear time? Click here to visit the page.

See examples of possible PPE combinations below

These are various examples of combinations of PPE that help to ensure safe communication. There are many possible combinations that may better suit your needs depending on the environment, potential hazards and individual fit. Contact your 3M representative for assistance in selecting the right personal PPE.

Combination 1

Click here to download the explanation of this combination, or view the products in the webshop below.

3M Versaflo TR-600E HIK Powered Air Respirator View product

3M Speedglas Heavy Duty Backpack BPK-HD View product

3M SecureFit SF500 Safety Glasses with AS/AF coating View product

3M Peltor LiteCom Plus Headset Earmuff Helmet Attachment View product

3M MT7V/1 Dynamic Microphone for M-300 View product

Combination 2

Click here to download the explanation of this combination, or view the products in the webshop below.

3M Peltor LiteCom Plus Headset Earmuff Helmet Attachment View product

3M SecureFit SF500 Safety Glasses with AS/AF coating View product

3M SecureFit X5000 Climbing Helmet View product

3M DBI-SALA ExoFit XE50 Harness View product

*Adapted from Colton, Craig. “Respiratory Protection.” Fundamentals of Industrial Hygiene. Ed. Barbara Plog. Itasca: National Safety Council, 2012. 678-679.
**Based on 95 dBA TWA exposure and using Exposure Limit of 85 dBA and 3 dB exchange rate.