What’s EN 14126 PPE?

Protective clothing used for safety towards bio-hazards and infectious agents has been in information headlines in many instances in latest years. In initial phase of the Covid-19 disaster, The demand for PPE(including clothing to prevent transmission) has increased significantly, making supply a headache for most governments around the world, and suitable protective clothing was also a big problem for front line health workers in the fight against Ebola in 2015.

However, there are still much confusion about the main standard for this type of protection. Even manufactures of PPE have made some incorrect and misleading statements about the certification of clothing to this vital standard.

At HEALEECARE, we work hard to let our customers have a greater understanding of workplace hazard protection and PPE standard, since better understanding means better protection. All in all, we exist to help you protect your employees. Speak of EN 14126 protection clothing, some manufactures may hide or mislead the signature information in the instruction, so we try hard to make it clear, obvious, easy to visit and understand.

What’s the confusion for EN 14126 standard for protective clothing?

EN 14126 is a material test that proves that the fabric has a barrier to biological disease. According to EN 14126, special requirements are defined for protective clothing against infectious agents to protect against bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms. It contains four different tests, especially 3 of them are key indexes to protect against COVID-19, which are ISO 16603, ISO 16604, and ISO/DIS 22611 which determine penetration by blood, body fluids, blood-borne pathogens and biologically contaminated liquid aerosol.

But garments need only be tested to one of these, so users need to know the type of pollution they are dealing with and ensure the protection clothing have passed the appropriate test – not just any of the four tests. Unfortunately, many of them don’t notice.

The results of each of the four tests are classified according to a table in the standard. Level 1 to 3 or 1 to 6, it depends on the test, higher number, higher level of protection. Unless users understand this, the protective clothing chosen may have been taken only one of these tests and could have reached the lowest level – the minimum protection level. Or even if the correct tests are taken, the items may not reach a applicable classification for the required application.

The final doubt is a test listed in the standard (ISO 16603) has been commonly used as part of the certification and as an indication of a protection level, but in fact, the standard clearly point out that this specific test is only acted as a precursor to the critical ISO 16604 test(pressurized contaminated liquids), has no classification, and is not intended to indicate any measurement of performance.

These confusion perfectly form an ideal example of just knowing CE standards and ensuring PPE is certified is not enough. Employers or safety managers who participate in choosing the right PPE for infectious agent protection need to understand; what is in the standard, what tests are used and what those tests are about.