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Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 (Act No. 85 of 1993)RegulationsRegulations for Hazardous Biological Agents, 202211. Personal protective equipment and facilities |
| (1) | If it is not reasonably practicable to ensure that the exposure of an employee is controlled as contemplated in regulation 10, the employer must, in the case of— |
| (a) | airborne, ingestion and contact transmission, provide the employee with suitable protective equipment and protective clothing; and |
| (b) | HBAs that can be absorbed through the skin, provide the employee with suitable impermeable personal protective clothing. |
| (2) | Where respiratory protective equipment is provided, the employer must ensure that— |
| (a) | the relevant safety equipment is capable of preventing the exposure to the HBA concerned; |
| (b) | the relevant safety equipment is correctly selected, fitted and properly used; |
| (c) | information, instructions, training and supervision which would be necessary with regard to the use and disposal of the safety equipment are known to the employees; and |
| (d) | the reusable safety equipment is kept in hygienic condition and efficient working order. |
| (3) | An employer must, as far as is reasonably practicable— |
| (a) | not issue personal protective equipment which has been used to an employee unless it is capable of being decontaminated and disinfected prior to use; |
| (b) | provide separate containers or storage facilities for protective equipment and protective clothing when not in use; and |
| (c) | take steps to ensure that all protective equipment and protective clothing not in use are stored in a demarcated area with proper access control. |
| (4) | An employer must, as far as is reasonably practicable, ensure that all contaminated reusable personal protective clothing issued is cleaned and handled in accordance with the following procedures: |
| (a) | Where such clothing is cleaned on the premises of the employer, care must be taken to prevent contamination during handling, transporting and cleaning; |
| (b) | where clothing is sent off the premises to a contractor for cleaning purposes, the contractor must place the clothing in impermeable, tightly sealed colour coded containers and such containers must be clearly identified with a biohazard label as depicted in Annexure B; |
| (c) | where clothing from facilities handling HBA Risk Group 3 and Risk Group 4 agents is sent off the premises for any purposes, it must first be decontaminated; and |
| (d) | it must be ensured that the contractor as contemplated in subregulation (4)(b) is fully informed of the requirements of these Regulations and the precautions to be taken regarding the handling of contaminated clothing. |
| (5) | Subject to the provisions of the Facilities Regulations, an employer must, where reasonably practicable, provide employees using personal protective equipment and clothing as contemplated in subregulation (1) with— |
| (a) | adequate washing facilities which are readily accessible and located in an area where the facilities will not become contaminated, in order to enable the employees to meet the standard of personal hygiene consistent with the adequate control of exposure, and to avoid the spread of HBAs; |
| (b) | two separate lockers labelled "protective clothing" and "general clothing" respectively, and ensure that the general and protective clothing is kept separately in the lockers concerned; and |
| (c) | separate "clean" and "contaminated" change rooms if the employer uses or processes HBAs to the extent that the HBA could endanger the health of persons outside the workplace. |
