Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

What is a PPE checklist?

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is the clothing or equipment designed to protect workers from physical hazards at the workplace. A PPE checklist helps safety officers and other employees to check whether the protective equipment is faultless and in good condition. If defects are found, corrective action can be initiated immediately. A regular PPE inspection with a checklist also reveal frequently occurring defects that can be rectified by further measures.

This article deals with the following topics:

1. The PPE in the STOP principle

2. 5 steps to check the PPE with a mobile checklist

3. A digital app for the PPE checklist

The PPE in the STOP principle

Workplace safety should start with a strong assessment of workplace risks. Once the hazards and risks have been accurately identified, a plan to prioritise and reduce the risk of injury is developed and presented. Useful tools for conducting an assessment include the risk assessment and the job safety analysis.

If safety officers have discovered health risks for employees with the help of a checklist in the working processes, then protective measures must be prioritized according to the S-T-O-P principle:

1. Substitution: Changing the entire work process or the use of operating resources in order to reduce the physical strain at the workplace.


2. Technical solutions: Replacement or retrofitting of machines, tools and other technical equipment that pose a health hazard.


3. Organisational measures: The source of danger is separated from the employees in terms of space and time.


4. Personal protection measures: The individual protection of the individual employee by personal protective equipment (PPE).

In accordance with the Ordinance on Industrial Safety and Health, PPE may only be used after all alternatives have been examined. Only when the use of other, higher-ranking protective measures can be ruled out should the following PPE categories be reviewed for their necessity within the company.

1. Cut and stab protection
2. Head and hearing protection
3. Eye and face protection
4. Respiratory protection
5. Protective clothing against chemical, biological and physical hazards
6. Hand and arm protection against chemical, biological and physical hazards
7. Skin protection products
8. Fall protection
9. PPE to rescue from heights and depths
10. PPE as protection against drowning

5 steps to check the PPE with a mobile checklist

Step 1: Create a free Lumiform account to get started.

Step 2: Download and adapt a template for the PPE checklist.

Step 3: Install the Lumiform app on your smartphone or tablet and perform an inspection.

Step 4: Take photos, perform actions and create reports automatically via the mobile device.

Step 5: Invite teammates, save time, make work places safer and save lives.

A digital app for the PPE checklist

With Lumiform's mobile app, every safety officer can easily perform the PPE inspection using a digital form. The desktop software is used to create checklists and evaluate the collected data. This significantly reduces the risk of PPE defects, documentation errors and damage to reputation.

The easy communication with all team members and stakeholders allows significantly more efficient internal processes and faster resolution of incidents. Loss of working hours due to sick or injured employees are very expensive. With Lumiform's digital solution, companies protect their employees and avoid productivity losses and lost wages by maintaining full visibility in real-time.

The use of a digital checklist for PPE enables:

• To obtain real-time data on the PPE inspection. This makes safety and quality measurable.


• To get an overview of everything that happens during a PPE inspections.


• Automatically PPE report, which saves all this manual post-processing.


• The efficiency of internal processes: Through more efficient communication within the team, with third parties and with management, as well as faster incident reporting, incidents are resolved up to 4x faster.


• Save time by simplifying the analysis of all data and identifying areas requiring special attention more quickly.