What Are Safety Shoes?
Safety shoes are footwear designed to protect your feet from different impact or other hazards in the workplace. Your feet are the reason that you can stand or move from place to place. Safety shoes are part of personal protective equipment (PPE). In this post, we’ll discuss what qualities needed for safety shoes. For more information regarding Canadian standards, refer to the Protective Footwear standards.
What Are The Main Qualities For Safety Shoes?
- Impact resistance – safety shoes should have a built-in metatarsal guard, and an in-toe guard. Wearing safety shoes protects your feet from objects falling or striking your feet.
- Slip-and-fall resistance – safety shoes contain a good grip that help you avoid slipping and falling.
- Comfortable – when wearing safety shoes, you should be able to work effectively and without any confinement in your feet.
Types of Safety Shoes
There are other kinds safety shoes that fit to different environments and workplaces. Get to know these different kinds of safety shoes so that you know what type of protection you need.
- Heat resistance – wearing this type of safety shoes insulate your feet from extreme heat. Wear heat-resistant safety shoes in workplaces that involves molten metals.
- Cold resistance – just like heat resistance, this type of safety shoes protects your feet from extreme cold. An example of this type are winter boots.
- Electrically conductive – wearing this type of safety shoes will help you avoid producing static electricity. Wear these types of safety shoes around areas of high-risk explosion.
- Electrical Safety-Toe – these shoes are the opposite from the electrically conductive shoes, as they protect you from electric conductors. Think of them as electric-resistant.
Conclusion
The different qualities of safety shoes will help you select the right kind of safety shoes. Safety shoes may look heavy and hard but wearing them provides your safety in your feet. For more information, Hard Hat Training provides training about safety shoes and other PPE for your feet. Good luck and stay safe!