Lee Taylor, Wenaas, UK, explores the importance of specially designed PPE and work wear for the increasingly extreme environments faced by the oil and gas industry.

Attitudes towards offshore health and safety have come a long way in recent years. Heightened regulatory processes along with major advances in technology have meant that offshore workers are now better equipped to deal with the increasing demands of their roles in harsher climatic environments than ever before.

Health and safety has become a huge industry in its own right, with oil and gas industry bodies funding a multitude of research and development projects to provide the latest safety resources for their workforce. Included in this is the personal protective equipment and work wear sector, which has progressed in tandem with other strands of health and safety. As the offshore workforce evolves, so does the requirement for updated PPE and work wear. This is perfectly illustrated by the recent research undertaken by a university based in Aberdeen, which has assessed the implications of a physically growing offshore workforce upon a number of health and safety measures in general – not least the efficacy of PPE and work wear. The question is – have the work force’s habits changed sufficiently to ensure the right procedures are being followed?

Wenaas is a designer and manufacturer of work wear and PPE, and understands the importance of investment in research and development to continually optimise and improve work wear and PPE. It is on the basis of this commitment to R&D – and a ‘head-to-toe safety’ ethos – that Wenaas has been involved in research projects which aim to develop superior protection work wear, fit to cope with the extreme demands that the petroleum industry supplies.

This is important, because whilst the North Sea offshore industry holds a relatively positive track record for safety, E&P activity is moving into more hazardous, remote and ultimately more dangerous areas, as the search for reserves continues. This presents increasingly challenging environments within which work wear and PPE must perform, whilst highlighting the need for the emergence of innovative solutions and education on how to use those solutions to their best advantage.

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The Royal Navy‘s sailors will be waiting a little longer to don their bold new ‘fashion statement’ uniforms – complete with American-style baseball caps – after the first batch arrived mouldy.

The new uniforms, first tested back in 2012, were supposed to begin being rolled out this month, but the first order for 1,700 ‘Combat Number 4 Dress’ were unwearable.

It is thought the uniforms had been steam cleaned, but not dried properly.

A Navy source told The Sun: ‘There were plans to roll it out from the start of January. The first batch was completely ruined and unusable. It’s all rather embarrassing really and an unwanted delay.’

The uniform replaces the Navy’s traditional lighter blue outfit and is the first new uniform to be worn by our sailors on operations for more than 20 years.

The new kit, which is being manufactured by a British company as part of a £250,000 deal, is designed to be more versatile and adaptable to the different weather that the Navy encounters as it carries out its worldwide operations.

But when the uniforms were unveiled two years ago, traditionalists were horrified to see Royal Navy sailors would soon be wearing American-style baseball caps on operations.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said at the time the caps were ‘cool and more modern’.

The new uniforms also replaced buttons with Velcro, and zip-up boots with fake laces.

The MoD went as far as to say the uniforms were a ‘Daring fashion statement’ – a play on words based around HMS Daring, the £1billion Type 45 destroyer where Combat Number 4 Dress was trialed.

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Twelve nurses from the Lianshui Huaian Hospital of Chinese Medicine were given a month’s training by a real air hostess and are now wearing the outfits when they treat patients, says the Yangtse Evening Post. A hospital spokeswoman says the uniforms have slightly longer skirts for reasons that “everybody understands”, and the nurses who wear air hostess uniforms get paid more than the other nurses – but take on a heavier workload.

Some nurses say the new uniform has changed their lifestyles. Zhao Yanan tells the paper she’s now sleeping two hours earlier so she looks better in the morning, while another says she avoids fatty foods because she’s more aware of her figure. But there’s been a mixed reaction among patients, the Want China Times reports. Some say the outfits “brighten up the hospital” but others worry it’s a gimmick that detracts from the quality of nursing care.

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