Don and Doff Proper PPE
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is designed to protect you from hazardous materials.
Ensuring you don and doff your PPE correctly is essential to ensuring your safety and limiting your exposure to these materials.
Step 1: Conduct Initial Hazard Assessment
Review situation to determine required PPE:
- Source of loss (fire, flood, etc.)
- Age/type of building
- Commercial or residential
- Are services disconnected?
- Is building structurally sound?
- Any hazardous materials identified?
Step 2: Set up space and equipment
Lay out all equipment and arrange it to be easily accessible as you get dressed
Prepare 4 strips of tape to wrap around wrists/ankles
- Fold ends of strips to create non-sticky areas to hold on to while donning and doffing equipment
- Avoid touching sticky parts of tape with gloves, as it will tear your gloves
Step 3: Pull on coveralls and footwear
Ensure coveralls are correct size
- Small coveralls will tear and expose you to the hazardous materials
- Excessively large coveralls can snag on edges and tear
Note: Coverall size may need to change based on seasonal clothing worn underneath (ex. larger coverall size to accommodate winter layers)
To don coveralls:
- Remove from storage and unfold
- Unzip suit and shake it open
- Grip the waist and shake out the legs
- Place legs inside coveralls and pull up like a pair of pants - Be careful not to rip the fabric as you pull them over your feet/shoes
- Pull coveralls up body and put arms inside
- Zip up coveralls halfway
Put on proper boots/footwear:
- Sit/lean when putting on boots to avoid falling
- Pull coverall leg over top of boot/shoe
- Use prepared tape strips to tape cuff of coverall ankle to boot
Step 4: Put on additional equipment
Safety glasses/goggles
Hood of coveralls
- All hair must be tucked inside of the hood
- Hood should fit snugly around your face
Zip coveralls up
- Ensure coveralls are completely zipped up and secured at the collar
Hard Hat
- Place hard hat on top of overall hood
- Secure chin strap
Step 5: Don your respirator
- Inspect respirator for damage
- Ensure correct cartridge filters are connected
- Hold respirator in one hand and place against face (avoid touching filter cartridges)
- Use other hand to pull straps over head, towards the back of the head
Adjust straps,
- Start with straps lower on the head
- Then adjust higher straps
Straps should be flat and smooth against the head
Note: Facial hair can interfere with the seal of respirator. It is recommended to have a clean shaven face (specifically in areas where seal touches face), when donning a respirator.
Step 6: Put on gloves
Based on type of mitigation, two pairs of gloves may be necessary.
- If wearing two pairs, put on first pair of gloves on under the cuff of the coverall (entire glove touching your skin)
Proceed with given steps if wearing one pair, or adding second pair:
- Put on gloves, pulling end of glove over the top of coverall's cuff
- Tape connection place of glove and cuff (not overly tight)
- Squeeze tape with opposite hand to ensure seal
Step 7: Prepare to remove PPE
Ensure you have a suitable space to remove PPE.
Set-up 2 bags:
- For items to be disposed of (as per disposal instructions)
- For items to be cleaned/decontaminated
Vacuum Coveralls
Depending on source of loss, it may be necessary to vacuum your coveralls before removing
- Use a filtered vacuum to remove hazardous particulates
- Vacuum from top to bottom
Step 8: Remove PPE starting at the top
Remove PPE starting at the top and working down
Keep respirator on until coveralls are removed entirely (next steps)
Remove hard hat & googles:
- Place in bag for decontamination
Pull coverall hood down
- Pull the hood open and backwards, away from your face
Step 9: Remove coveralls and footwear
Unzip coveralls.
Remove slowly:
- Remove one arm, slide carefully, and pull back cuff/attached glove to invert sleeve as your arm comes out
- Remove second arm, sliding carefully and inverting the sleeve as you remove it
- If wearing two pairs of gloves, the pair taped to the coveralls will come off as you remove the sleeves of the coverall. Keep second pair on until the end
- If you have no gloves on, put on new gloves to continue
- If pants are taped to boot, remove tape now (use non-sticky folded edge, as sticky tape can tear your gloves)
- Carefully roll coveralls down - roll suit over on itself to minimize contact with contaminants
- If pant cuffs are connected to boots, roll pant leg down over boot
- Step out of boots, leaving coveralls and boot together
- Lift coverall off of boots
- Carefully place coveralls in disposal bag
- Place boots in decontamination bag
Step 10: Properly close bags and remove gloves
Decontamination bag
- While still wearing gloves, tie up the bag of items to be cleaned/decontaminated
Remove gloves
- Remove first glove by pinching at wrist and pulling glove down over hand - invert the glove
- Hold removed glove in opposite hand
- Use inside edge of removed glove to grip edge of the glove on the other hand
- While holding the first removed glove, pull down and invert the second glove around it
- Place gloves in disposal bag
Disposal Bag
- Tie and properly dispose of disposal bag
Step 11: Wash hands
Ensure hands are washed/disinfected correctly, following any specifications based on the source of loss.
Step 12: Remove respirator
Take off the respirator carefully.
Avoid touching face with mask as it may be contaminated.
- Hold respirator with one hand - avoid touching cartridges
- Use other hand to pull straps over head, forward towards face
- Lift up and off face
- Tape should be placed over filter cartridges to avoid contaminated particulates from falling out
- Place in decontamination bag
