Incident Report

Subject:                     Facial Hair - Who Has a Policy?   

Date of first enquiry:                  23 September 2003 

Initial enquiry / comment.

I am looking for Refineries who have a Facial hair policy in place. Do you know of any?

Responses:

Date

Detail

Documents

24/09/2003

I have seen a recent change in policy across our local authority brigade with 'goaty beards' which were until recently not permissible now a common sight.  Moustaches were always allowed within reason. There is the possibility for all brigades to adopt quantitative 'face fit' testing which of course can give real data to support beard type and style for acceptability or not.  However, the jury is still out. What's our members views?  Replies 'to all' for shared learning.  
25/09/2003 At Ciba we adopt the policy of no facial hair around the mask seal area, goaty beards and moustaches are allowed but must be trimmed so as not to interfere with the mask seal. We also have a policy of no ear rings or other facial piecing when attending incidents and prefer that all rings are removed or taped up.  
25/09/2003

Acordis UK's Policy.

4.2  Clean Shaven Policy
All RPE users must be clean-shaven in order to ensure that they are adequately protected when using any type of RPE.  Clean-shaven means that there is no hair on the face where the RPE seal makes contact with the skin.  Although some facial hair, such as a small moustache, may be acceptable under the clean-shaven policy, line managers having responsibility for the work must decide when the degree of any facial hair does not comply with the clean-shaven policy.  There are three categories of RPE users as follows:

 4.2.1    Essential Users
Essential users are those persons who need to wear RPE as part of their normal duties in order to respond to Site Emergencies as defined in SSI 17 and SSI 18.  Essential users must be clean-shaven at all times to ensure that when required to wear the RPE that they are fully protected. 

4.2.2    Regular Users
Regular users are those persons who need to wear RPE in order to respond to working conditions that can occur due to the nature of the manufacturing process.  The process conditions are such that they will have to obtain and wear RPE in order to make a rapid response to deal with the problems as part of their normal duties.  Regular users must be clean-shaven at all times to ensure that when required to wear the RPE that they are fully protected.

4.2.3    Other Users
Other users are those persons who will at some time have to wear RPE in order to meet Business requirements in order to carry out the various work activities that involve the wearing of RPE. 

  1. These persons are only required to be clean-shaven when required to be available for the work duties in accordance with the Business Arrangements. 
  2. Each Business Unit is responsible for making the necessary arrangements to provide sufficient numbers of persons to cover the business needs for these work activities. 
  
25/09/2003

BNFL's version. Obviously, not being a refinery, our policy is aimed principally at protection from other chemical/ radiological hazards, but I'm sure is similar to many of yours.
The attached excerpt is from our top-level EH&S manual and I believe, broadly follows HSG (53).

Annex 1

Facial Hair Restrictions for the Use of Respiratory Protection
Types of Respiratory Protective Equipment
1. The requirements of this Annex apply to:
· all types of close fitting negative pressure respirators. This
includes full face, half face, limited life half face and disposable half
face respirators.
· close fitting positive pressure respirators and breathing apparatus
when used to protect against an atmosphere immediately dangerous to life or health.

Facial Hair
2. Individuals required to wear respiratory protection as defined above
must be:
· clean shaven in the area of the respirator face seal at the time of
each fit test and training session.
· clean shaven in the area of the face seal when a respirator is worn
in the workplace.

Definition of Clean Shaven
3. Clean shaven means no beard stubble. Experience indicates that faces
will remain sufficiently smooth for up to 12 hours from the previous
shave.
4. Neat goatee beards and moustaches are acceptable provided that they
do not impinge on the face seal area.

Occasional Wearing of Respiratory Protection
5. Some individuals are only required to wear respiratory protection
occasionally and are not members of an emergency response team. In these circumstances it is acceptable for the individual to wear facial hair for
most of the time, providing they are clean shaven for each fit test and
training session and on those occasions when respiratory protection is
worn on plant.

Emergencies
6. Where an individual has a role in an emergency response team, where
the wearing of respiratory protection may be necessary at short notice,
the individual must be clean shaven as a matter of routine.

7. Where an individual is required to wear respiratory protection only
as a means of escape in case of emergency ("emergency respirator"), the
requirements of this Annex do not apply.

  
25/09/2003 This is Octels facial hair policy. 3_20_Facial Hair