Area monitoring is frequently used as a temporary solution to help keep workers safe in industrial facilities where mid-term deployment occurs as well as for confined space entry and far-working locations such as oil and gas platforms.

Many devices, including gas detectors, have connectivity features designed to transfer information from a lone worker back to safety personnel on site. Although connectivity features are a tremendous step forward, not all lone worker solutions deliver the protection they need.

As a new decade rolls into our world, will there be any new significant developments in safety, particularly in hand protection that will provide an even safer work environment than the past decade?

We have gradually come to depend on cell phones and their apps for more and more information about our daily lives. The latest trend seems to be health monitoring that allows the average person to keep an eye on their vital stats. The future of hand protection is moving in much the same direction.

In considering very cheap cut-resistant gloves we may well be led to wonder, how could these supposedly hi-tech gloves be so cheap, and are they real or fake? Having been involved in the PPE glove industry for many years, I believe the truth lies somewhere in between.

Manufacturing leaders know that people and processes are most productive when safety, compliance and operational objectives align. Some people used to fear that focusing too much on environment, health and safety would undermine productivity.