Does your Face Fit? Keeping safe on site

What is face fit testing? 

Face fitting is a crucial health and safety requirement to keep you and your colleagues safe on the construction site. And it’s something we at Hawes Construction Group have fully invested in. 

Qualitative face fitting makes sure that any respiratory protective equipment worn at work, such as face masks and half masks, fit their wearer properly. This applies to both reusable and disposable facial equipment.  

It’s not simply a matter of aesthetics, or even comfort. Making sure the equipment properly fits the face of the wearer is crucial, as ill-fitting equipment can cause unwelcome exposure to potentially hazardous materials. So it’s crucial the mask’s tight seal remains unbroken while on an individual’s face. 

This procedure is designed to assess whether a specific mask forms an effective seal around the wearer’s face, preventing the inhalation of hazardous substances. Under UK legislation, face fit testing is governed by the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002, which mandate that employers must provide suitable RPE to their workers if required.  

We must ensure that the RPE fits correctly and is suitable for the individual, as part of our responsibility to safeguard employee health and safety in environments where airborne contaminants pose a risk. The regulations also call for regular re-testing and monitoring to confirm ongoing compliance and protection. 

Why do we have a face fit tester on our team? 

Everyone is different, so there really is no one-size-fits-all approach. That’s why it’s so important to have someone on site, like our very own Sarra, who is face fit trained.  

Sarra is fully certified having completed the Kentec Qualitative Face Fit Training Workshop. To pass, she needed to demonstrate she understands and could apply ‘Qualitative Face Fit Testing’. This encompasses everything from understanding principles and implications to the correct use and donning of tight fitting masks. These tests consider a breadth of issues, such as sensitivity tests and an assessment of whether the seal remains secure while the person carries out a number of different tasks. 

Face fit testing is a legal requirement. So with Sarra fully trained, you can rest assured we have compliance covered here at Hawes Construction Group – and a demonstrable commitment to health and safety. 

How else do we keep each other safe at work? 

Always striving to help others, Sarra is also the person who volunteered to become Hawes Construction Group’s fire warden. 

Far more than a tick-box ‘must have’, a fire warden in your workplace is vital to keep people safe should an emergency break out. Sarra’s training makes sure she can identify and manage fire risks, knows how to use different types of extinguishers correctly, and is able to safely evacuate people from a building on fire.  

The whole team would like to thank Sarra for investing not only in her own safety but thus in ours, too.  

As 2025 is underway, but we remain in the dark winter months, it’s important to remember the other ways we should keep each other – and ourselves – safe at work. One of our recent blog posts, How to look after your physical and mental health on site this winter, explored this topic, checking in on contractors and employees working outdoors in cold weather to ensure they were warm, safe and visible to others. You can recap these tips here to help you and your team navigate another typically British winter!  

To talk to us about face fitting and how it works, please get in touch with the team.