The purpose of this British Standard is to establish a programme for the cleaning, maintenanceand repair of various elements of firefighters' personal protective equipment (PPE), to reduce thepotential health and safety risks associated with poorly maintained, contaminated, or damagedequipment. For the purposes of this British Standard, firefighters' PPE is deemed to cover garments,helmets, gloves, footwear and firehoods.

It is expected that all organizations involved in firefighting and associated activities will have aprocedure for dealing with contaminants at an incident prior to inspection and cleaning, to preventcross-contamination and further exposure to contaminants. This British Standard does not givespecific recommendations for such procedures.Cross References:PD ISO/TR 19591Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992