It is impossible to ignore the effect of legislation when discussing personal protective equipment (PPE) in the workplace, and in most industrialised nations it is now mandatory for employers to provide appropriate PPE to the workforce. In the U.S., OSHA requirements for PPE started in 1970. In Europe and in line with the formal law-making procedures of the European Union parliamentary system of creating Directives, a PPE Directive was formulated and came into law in the early 1990s. It was an ambitious, complex and far-reaching piece of legislation and a revision is expected in 2014. It proposed and defined the basic health and safety requirements of all PPE and defined and categorised risk in order to assist in the selection of appropriate PPE.
At the same time, a series of Harmonised Standards — European Norms (ENs) — were created for all products groups within the definition of PPE. These standards were formulated to produce performance levels rather than simple pass or fail criteria.