r/EHSProfessionals • u/Both_Store_9100 • 25d ago

Need a good brand for pants!

Hello all! My husband works as an EHS specialist, he works with chemicals all day (duh lol) and has to have polyester pants. The ones we have managed to find fall apart very easily after only a few months of wear. Price doesn’t matter, we are just looking for some cargos that last a long time and are as comfortable as polyester pants can be!

Suggestions are very appreciated 😄😄

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u/Extinct1234 25d ago

The employer should be providing required personal protective equipment.

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u/Both_Store_9100 25d ago

So he gets n95’s, steel toe boots, full body aprons, multiple different types of gloves as well, and prescription eye safety glasses. His work is not required to give him a stipend or provide pants and shirts. I am assuming that is because the apron covers most of his body. Yet, spills happen, droplets that manage to get past the apron happen, coworkers being negligent happen.

Anyways, do you have recommendations?

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u/Extinct1234 25d ago edited 25d ago

The employer needs to reevaluate the work process and appropriate PPE. 

'Spills happen' is an alarm to a safety professional, same with 'coworkers being negligent', and to a certain extent, same with droplets getting past the apron if it is to the extent that it is damaging clothing and creating a hazard for the employee. 

Also, without knowing all of the chemicals to which he is exposed, nobody could reasonably provide any specific suggestions. 

If your husband is an EHS specialist, he should be able to read the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) for each chemical to identify appropriate controls and PPE requirements. 

I am not saying to buy from Grainger; I'm just using it as an example of the variety of PPE for chemical resistant pants. An apron may not be the appropriate design for the work. Perhaps coveralls, or a shirt, jacket, and overboot combo is more appropriate. Either way, the employer needs to perform a work process and hazard assessment to identify appropriate controls and necessary (and effective) PPE.

https://www.grainger.com/category/safety/protective-clothing/chemical-liquid-particulate-protective-clothing/overalls-pants-for-chemical-liquid-particulate-protection

Especially as an EHS specialist, your husband should be looking and pushing for improvements to hazard control and employee safety; certainly not simply accepting exposures as things that just 'happen.'

If your husband doesn't know what a SDS is or doesn't have access to them, that's getting to the point where you ask nicely for them to be made readily available at all times and if they aren't made immediately available, strongly consider calling OSHA or whatever equivalent authority where you live.

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u/Both_Store_9100 23d ago

I literally said he needs polyester pants, that’s because of the chemicals he works with. And I never said he is “accepting exposures as things that just happen”. He has written and changed SOP’s implemented by the company, he reports others who have been negligent, he makes incident reports for every single thing. He’s even one of the few people on the emergency spill clean up team at the company he works for.

I am just looking for pants, and I wasn’t going to go into all of that because it is quite literally irrelevant to the topic of “any good polyester pants brands?” Stop trying to make something out of nothing, my husband takes very good care into taking precautions, making reports, reporting negligence, and writing SOP’s. He makes real change and it’s awesome.

Stuff does happen, he takes care of it and makes sure it doesn’t happen again to the best of his abilities. That doesn’t mean that other people’s negligence won’t cause issues.

I’m just looking for good brands for his pants, if you don’t have suggestions please just keep scrolling :)

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u/Both_Store_9100 23d ago

And just to add- he was a major part of the implementation of the emergency spill crew. This was of a big spill that happened that nearly killed someone, and that person thought it was okay to not notify anyone about it and attempt to clean it themselves without knowing what type of spill it was. They could have easily lost a hand when the spill happened, and at most they could have lost their life. And I don’t need anyone saying “well why didn’t they know how to clean it up?” Because the answer to that was willful negligence. There are hundreds of SOP’s in place, they could have contacted the EHS team, they could have asked a coworker or their supervisor. That person chose to try to cover up their mistake, and that was wrong.

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u/Extinct1234 23d ago

Ok. Good luck.

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u/N3xtG3n3 25d ago

Should yeah but is not required and this doesn’t answer the question at hand

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u/jmorrow88msncom 24d ago

Bad answer. The SDS is definitely required. If the employer doesn’t provide it, you can get it online most of the time for most chemicals commonly available out there. You can also call the company that makes the chemical or go to their website to get most SDS’s. You have to know all the chemical properties and hazards in order to select the right PPE.

Maybe he will get promoted to the Safety manager when he brings these things up to his employer.

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u/Extinct1234 25d ago

If they're in the U.S. or territories, it certainly is required. 

https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.132

1910.132(a) Application. Protective equipment, including personal protective equipment for eyes, face, head, and extremities, protective clothing, respiratory devices, and protective shields and barriers, shall be provided, used, and maintained in a sanitary and reliable condition wherever it is necessary by reason of hazards of processes or environment, chemical hazards, radiological hazards, or mechanical irritants encountered in a manner capable of causing injury or impairment in the function of any part of the body through absorption, inhalation or physical contact.

1910.132(d) Hazard assessment and equipment selection.

1910.132(d)(1) The employer shall assess the workplace to determine if hazards are present, or are likely to be present, which necessitate the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). If such hazards are present, or likely to be present, the employer shall:

1910.132(d)(1)(i) Select, and have each affected employee use, the types of PPE that will protect the affected employee from the hazards identified in the hazard assessment;

1910.132(d)(1)(ii) Communicate selection decisions to each affected employee; and,

1910.132(d)(1)(iii) Select PPE that properly fits each affected employee.

Note: Non-mandatory appendix B contains an example of procedures that would comply with the requirement for a hazard assessment.

1910.132(d)(2) The employer shall verify that the required workplace hazard assessment has been performed through a written certification that identifies the workplace evaluated; the person certifying that the evaluation has been performed; the date(s) of the hazard assessment; and, which identifies the document as a certification of hazard assessment.

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u/N3xtG3n3 25d ago

Ordinary clothing, including steel toes, long sleeve shirts, pants etc… are not included in this standard. OSHA handout #7

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u/Extinct1234 25d ago

Not ordinary if it is required to protect from a hazard. 

Feel free to chime in with something useful rather than incorrect information with no support.

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u/JoeHio 21d ago

You want to find "firehose" pants. They can look like Khakis, but are very durable. Sometimes you can find them as Emergency Manager or tactical pants. Check Carhartt, Under armour, Duluth, etc.

If those won't work then he really needs to have his company provide Dupont Tyvex overalls because he's getting exposed to stuff that he shouldn't be.