Integrating PPE and IoT: Technical, Regulatory and Organizational Perspectives

At the moment, the application of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to personal protective equipment (PPE) is widely studied because smart PPE represents an opportunity to improve occupational health and safety (OHS). There are some applications that provide assistance in case of an accident or that report the proximity of a hazard directly and immediately. Of course, smart PPE - defined as a combination of traditional PPE items that protect against applicable/relevant risks encountered by the wearer and which exhibits an intended and exploitable response either to changes in its surroundings/environment or to an external signal/input represents a success for the electronics field, and it can provide significant support for safety in the workplace. Anyway, there are some other aspects that we must consider in order to use smart PPE in a workplace and these aspects represents also an obstacle to the widespread adoption of PPE integrated with IoT: PPE compliance with EU Regulation 425/2016, needs of training of workers, needs and usage requirements in the workplace. This article explores all these aspects also reporting the solutions proposed in recent Italian standard UNI RT 11858:2022. Looking ahead, the role of PPE is expected to evolve, with smart PPE acting as decision-support aids rather than replacements for supervision.