The purpose of personal protective equipment is to reduce employee exposure to hazards when engineering controls and administrative controls are not feasible or effective to reduce these risks to acceptable levels.
PPE is commonly used in health care settings such as hospitals, doctor's offices and clinical labs. When used properly, PPE acts as a barrier between infectious materials such as viral and bacterial contaminants and your skin, mouth, nose, or eyes (mucous membranes). The barrier has the potential to block transmission of contaminants from blood, body fluids, or respiratory secretions. PPE may also protect patients who are at high risk for contracting infections through a surgical procedure or who have a medical condition, such as, an immunodeficiency, from being exposed to substances or potentially infectious material brought in by visitors and healthcare workers. When used properly and with other infection control practices such as hand-washing, using alcohol-based hand sanitizers, and covering coughs and sneezes, it minimizes the spread of infection from one person to another. Effective use of PPE includes properly removing and disposing of contaminated PPE to prevent exposing both the wearer and other people to infection.
The PPE include face shields, gloves, goggles and glasses, gowns, head covers, masks, respirators, and shoe covers. Face shields, gloves, goggles and glasses, gowns, head covers, and shoe covers protect against the transmission of germs through contact and droplet routes.
The global personal protective equipment market size was estimated at USD 50.9 billion in 2019 and expected to register a CAGR of 6.6%. Increasing need for respiratory equipment in mining, emergency response, military and law enforcement, healthcare, and fire services, coupled with rising instances of hand injuries at the workplace, is anticipated to propel market growth over the coming years.
Growing awareness regarding workers’ health and safety, in addition to rising industrial fatalities primarily in emerging economies owing to lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), is anticipated to steer the market over the forecast years. Technological innovation, accompanied by changing consumer needs for PPE, is further projected to augment market expansion.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has increased the demand for PPE products including masks, respirators, protective clothing, and gloves. The manufacturing, aerospace, etc. sectors have supplied PPE to their employees to protect them from the sudden outbreak of the pandemic COVID-19. Also, the manufacturers are working at 100% capacity to supply PPE across the regions owing to increasing demand-supply gap. As a result, the demand for PPE is expected to witness growth over the forecast period.
List of Key Companies Operating in the PPE Market are :
§ Honeywell International, Inc.
§ 3M
§ Ansell Ltd.
§ Alpha ProTech
§ Avon Protection
§ DuPont
§ COFRA S.r.l.
§ Uvex Group
§ Mallcom (India) Limited
§ MSA
§ Blue Eagle
§ Udyogi Plastics Pvt. Ltd
§ Gateway Safety, Inc.
§ Radians, Inc.
§ Rock Fall (UK) Ltd
§ TEIJIN LIMITED
§ TenCate Fabrics
§ Acme Safetywears Limited
§ Towa Corporation
§ Supermax Corporation Berhad
§ MCR Safety
§ Lakeland Inc.
§ L. Gore & Associates, Inc.
§ Bullard
§ KARA
