If we pay close attention to PPE pictures, especially at Emergency Responses, we can see that this critical aspect of proper PPE donning is usually not followed, placing responders at increased risk. So, what is the PPE Shingle Effect, and WHY is it REQUIRED?
In a chemical exposure environment, especially in an UNCONTROLLED RELEASE environment, when using LEVEL B/C ensembles, we ALWAYS wear our pants OUTSIDE of our boots and we ALWAYS “tape” the bottom of our pants leg to the top portion of our boots for maximum flexibility. This practice ensures that any splash that we get to our PPE, the liquid (or condensing gas/vapor) will run down our suit and OVER our boots and NOT inside our boot(s).
The same is done with our Sleeves. In today’s practice, we usually put the inner glove under the garment sleeve and the outer glove over the garment sleeve. HOWEVER, if we know we will be working BELOW our waist, we would have the sleeve OVER the outer glove for the SHINGLE effect, and if we know we will be working with our arms raised, we would have our outer gloves on the outside of the sleeve. This practice ensure we have the “shingle effect” in place.
NOTE: All Level A suits will have a built-in shingle that covers the outside of the boots.
NOTE 2: This practice is NOT only for Emergency Response, but for all exposure environments!!