The result was a huge range of regulations which were often applied to single industries (for example, The Flax and Tow-Spinning and Weaving Regulations 1906, and The Tanning Welfare Order 1930).

Now the European Union has put into place a number of broader regulations with the aim of having common standards across all EU countries.

For the employer these include The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 (referred to in this booklet as the PPE Regulations), which effectively first came into force in July 1996. These set out your obligations and are being used:

to work alongside more recent legislation like
The Noise at Work Regulations 1989 and
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1994 (well known as COSHH throughout industry) which already cover key PPE issues.

For the manufacturer these regulations include
the PPE (EC Directive) Regulations which set out the new standards for the quality of the protective equipment used in your business.

So some regulations have been scrapped altogether, some amended, and some remain unaltered -
it's not difficult to see how you could find yourself the wrong side of the law without even realising it!