Part 212 min

2.3 Hands, feet and high visibility

Hands, feet and visibility are where PPE selection turns from "wear it" into "wear the right one." A glove rated for cut protection may be exactly the wrong choice next to a rotating shaft. A boot that stops a dropped block may do nothing about the nail you step on. A vest that works on a job trailer road is not enough at night on a state highway. This chapter is about matching the item to the hazard.

1 Hand injuries: the most common, the most preventable

Hands are involved in nearly every task on a jobsite and they are the body part workers put closest to every hazard. The general duty is in 29 CFR 1926.95(a), which covers protective equipment for the "extremities," and 1926.28(a), which requires the employer to require appropriate PPE wherever there is exposure to hazardous conditions. Neither one names a glove type. That decision comes from the task.

Glove performance is described mostly by the ANSI/ISEA 105 standard, which rates cut resistance on an A1 to A9 scale along with abrasion, puncture and chemical permeation ratings. The document is copyrighted, so look at the marking printed on the cuff rather than at any table on the internet: a higher A number means more grams of force to cut through in the test.

Matching glove type to the actual hazard
Hazard	Glove	Watch out for
Sheet metal, glass, blades, banding	Cut-resistant, ANSI/ISEA 105 A-level chosen for the edge	Cut level is not puncture level — a rebar tie or a needle is a different test
Rebar, block, general material handling	Coated palm work glove with impact protection on the back	Bulk reduces grip and makes drops more likely
Concrete, mortar, epoxy, solvents	Chemical-resistant glove chosen for the specific chemical from the SDS	Wet cement is caustic and causes deep burns hours later
Hot work, welding, torch cutting	Leather welding gloves and sleeves	Synthetic gloves melt onto skin
Electrical work on or near energized parts	Rubber insulating gloves with leather protectors, tested and in date	These are a system with an inspection and retest interval, not a work glove
Rotating equipment — drill press, wire wheel, lathe	No gloves unless the manufacturer requires them	A glove that catches takes the hand with it

Common mistake: one glove for the whole site. Line-of-fire injuries — a hand between a pipe and a wall, a finger in a pinch point — are not solved by any glove. Ask first where the hand will be if the load moves, and only then which glove.

2 Foot protection, and a standards quirk worth knowing

29 CFR 1926.96 is one sentence: safety-toe footwear for employees shall meet the requirements and specifications in the American National Standard for Men's Safety-Toe Footwear, Z41.1-1967. That is not a typo — the construction standard still points to a 1967 consensus standard that ANSI has long since withdrawn. General industry, at 1910.136, was updated to the modern ASTM F2412 and F2413 test and performance standards.

Practically, everything sold today as safety footwear is built and marked to ASTM F2413, and buying to that standard is what a competent employer does. The marking inside the boot tongue tells you what it was tested for: impact and compression rating for the toe, and separate designations for metatarsal protection (Mt), puncture resistance (PR), electrical hazard resistance (EH), static-dissipative and conductive properties.

Toe cap

Impact and compression rating

Metatarsal — top-of-foot protection

Puncture resistance in the sole

Electrical hazard resistance

Three selection points people get wrong. A steel toe protects the toes and nothing else — dropped material lands on the instep as often as the toe, which is what the metatarsal designation is for. Puncture resistance lives in the sole plate, so it is a demolition and framing decision, not a toe decision. And electrical hazard footwear is secondary protection against incidental contact on a dry surface; it is not a substitute for de-energizing, and it stops working when the sole is wet, worn or embedded with metal.

Remember the payment rule from chapter 2.1: under 1926.95(d)(2) the employer need not pay for non-specialty safety-toe footwear if the boots may be worn off the jobsite — but specialty items such as metatarsal boots or puncture-resistant soles required by the job fall back under the employer-pays rule in (d)(1).

3 High-visibility apparel

An operator in a machine cab sees a fraction of what you assume. Being seen is a control, and on road work it is close to the only one you carry on your body.

Two OSHA requirements name it directly. 29 CFR 1926.651(d) requires that employees exposed to public vehicular traffic be provided with, and wear, warning vests or other suitable garments marked with or made of reflectorized or high-visibility material. And 1926.201(a) requires that flaggers, their signaling, and the warning garments they wear conform to Part 6 of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), which OSHA incorporates by reference.

The apparel itself is specified by the ANSI/ISEA 107 standard, which sorts garments into performance types — off-road, roadway, and public safety — and classes based on how much background and retroreflective material they carry. Class 2 is the common roadway vest; Class 3 garments with sleeves are for higher speeds, night work and flagging. The choice is made on traffic speed, exposure and lighting, not on comfort.

On the job: a vest that is grey with concrete dust has lost most of its fluorescence and much of its retroreflectivity. Fluorescent material only works in daylight; retroreflective tape only works when headlights hit it. Wash them, and replace the ones that no longer light up when you shine a phone light at them from across the lot.

4 Clothing is PPE too

1926.95(a) covers "protective clothing," and several site rules follow from it. Long sleeves and long pants for abrasion, sun and hot work spatter. No loose cuffs, drawstrings, or dangling lanyards near rotating parts. No rings, watches or bracelets on electrical work or around machinery — a ring bridging a circuit or catching on a rung can degloves a finger. Long hair tied and contained.

Two specialty cases show up on construction sites often enough to name. Flame-resistant clothing is required by task on oil and gas, utility and some industrial work; the garment is rated by the arc rating or the flash-fire test, and a cotton shirt is not flame-resistant. Chemical protective clothing is selected from the safety data sheet, by chemical, not by appearance — a coverall that resists one solvent may dissolve in another.

And weather gear, under 1926.95(d)(4)(ii), is normally on the employee: winter coats, parkas, rubber boots, ordinary sunglasses and sunscreen are not PPE the employer must pay for. That does not make them unimportant, as chapter 4.2 on heat and cold will show.

5 Fit, for the hands and feet

The fit clause added to 29 CFR 1926.95(c) on December 12, 2024 applies here as much as to harnesses. A glove too big is a snag hazard and destroys the fine grip that keeps a knife under control. A glove too small tires the hand and comes off. Boots a half size too large cause the ankle rolls that account for a large share of same-level injuries on uneven ground.

Fit also has to work for everyone on the crew. Gloves and boots stocked only in men's sizing leave some workers choosing between gear that does not fit and no gear at all. Under 1926.95(c)(2) that is now a selection failure by the employer, not a personal problem.

6 A two-minute pre-task check

1
What will my hands touch in this task — edges, chemicals, heat, rotating parts? Pick the glove for that, and take gloves off near rotating equipment.
2
What can land on my feet or come up through the sole? Toe rating, metatarsal, puncture plate.
3
Who needs to see me, from how far, at what speed, in what light? Choose the hi-vis class for the worst case of the shift, not the best.
4
Is anything on me loose, dangling, or metal, near something that spins or is energized?
5
Does all of it fit — and if not, who do I ask before I start?

Key takeaways

1926.95(a) and 1926.28(a) require appropriate protection for the extremities, but the choice of glove comes from the task — cut, puncture, chemical, heat and electrical are different tests.
Do not wear gloves around rotating equipment unless the manufacturer requires them.
1926.96 still references ANSI Z41.1-1967; modern footwear is built and marked to ASTM F2413, with separate Mt, PR and EH designations.
1926.651(d) requires warning vests for employees exposed to public vehicular traffic, and 1926.201(a) sends flagger garments to Part 6 of the MUTCD; ANSI/ISEA 107 sets the types and classes.
Faded or dirty hi-vis is degraded PPE — fluorescence works by day, retroreflective tape works in headlights.
Since December 12, 2024, 1926.95(c)(2) requires PPE to be selected so it properly fits each affected employee — including gloves and boots, in every size the crew needs.

Free educational content — not OSHA-authorized training, no certificate or card issued. Follow your employer's program and the standards cited.