1. Personal Protection

Unit 051: Knowledge of health,
safety and good housekeeping in the

automotive environment

Handout 1: Personal protection

Why personal protection?

• The automotive environment can produce many situations
where there can be the potential for injury to you and
other people. For this reason, a number of items of
personal protection equipment (PPE) are provided. These
potential risks can cause immediate injury and in some
instances, the personal damage may not occur until some
time, even years, later.

• An example of this is when using compressed air
equipment where the noise level can be fairly high. The
effect this has on hearing may not be immediate, but over
time and with longer exposure to a high level of noise,
permanent damage can be caused.

Protective clothing

• It is important that clothing worn is oil
resistant, since during the working day, oil and
other substances will collect on your clothing.
Oil resistant overalls should be worn at all
times as these will protect your ordinary
clothing and your skin. Where overalls are not
worn, it is important to ensure that your outer
clothing is oil resistant.

Eye protection

• to prevent damage to the eyes, special types of
goggles are available. These goggles should be
worn whenever there is a danger of eye damage,
such as when:

grinding and sanding
working with epoxy resins
 welding
using degreasing plants

there are different types of goggles for
different tasks: some of them are
shown below:

Full face mask Clear goggles Gas welding goggles

Hearing protection

• hearing protection must be used if the noise
level is constantly above 90dB(A)

• the most common types of protection are:
ear muffs
ear plugs.

Skin protection

• Many of the liquids and substances used in the automotive
environment can be harmful to the skin and these include:

 adhesives
 petrol fuel
 cleaning solvents
 diesel fuel
 lubricants (new and used)

• For this reason some form of hand protection must be used.
The two most common types are:

 barrier creams
 gloves

• There are various types of gloves and not all of these are oil
resistant, so ensure that you check before using them.

Vehicle protection
When working on customers’
vehicles, it is important that you
protect them from damage and keep
them clean and free from oil.

Body protection

• The paintwork and exterior of the vehicle must
be protected from harmful liquids and scratches.
If liquids are spilt on the body work, then they
should be washed off immediately. Any damage
caused must be reported to your supervisor and
the customer informed.

• Wing and panel covers can be used to protect the
paintwork, but care must be taken when fitting
and removing them as it is possible to scratch the
surface.

Interior protection

• It is important to ensure that oil and other
liquids do not damage the vehicle interior

• The following form of protection can be used:

floor covering
seat covers
steering wheel covers.

Working at the roadside

There will be times when you have to attend broken down vehicles at the

roadside and it is very important to remember your own safety and that of

others. A few things to remember are:

• avoid working on the offside of the vehicle if possible.
• ensure that any passengers are moved to a place of safety, as they

are your responsibility.
• ensure that the vehicle is in a safe position. If not, try to move to a

safe location before commencing work. If necessary, you may have
to contact the police for assistance.
• ensure you can be seen by wearing a reflective jacket.
• if you are working on a motorway or main road and the fault cannot
be rectified quickly and safely, move the vehicle to a safe place or
recover it to your workplace.
• when working on the vehicle, ensure that your own vehicle is
parked two to three vehicles (at least 8 metres) form the vehicle
being worked on.