Demonstration: Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Supplies

In an XXL ziplock bag:

• Tyvek suit
• Tyvek boot covers
• Chemically resistant apron
• Protective glasses
• Respirator
• Four pairs of chemically resistant gloves
• UV Blue ‐ invisible fluorescent dye
• "Weed‐Me‐Feed‐Me" (Grape Nuts cereal coated with UV Blue)
• Black light
• Makeup brush

You should also have a hand-held spreader. Try to find participants who are wearing primarily dark clothing. Also, it would be helpful if one person had a short-sleeved shirt while another had on a long-sleeved shirt.

Demonstration

The purpose of this demonstration is to illustrate how exposure to pesticides can be significantly reduced to nearly eliminated with the use of personal protective equipment (PPE)

Procedure

Step One

• Have one participant put on the suit, booties, and gloves.
• Have another participant (preferably someone wearing short sleeves) put on a pair of gloves.
• Have another participant put on only one glove (preferably someone wearing long sleeves).
• Have one participant put on the safety glasses.
• Have one participant (preferably someone wearing long sleeves and long pants) put on the apron.
• Have one participant wear no protective clothing and just carry the box containing the Grape Nuts cereal coated with UV Blue.

Step Two

• If there is a place close by where they can do a mock "Weed and Feed" application, ask the person carrying the box to pour the "pesticide" (which is really the Grape Nuts cereal coated with the UV Blue dye) into the hand-held applicator and send the participants out and ask them all to take a turn at making the "application." Have everyone pretend that the applicator gets clogged and they need to unclog it.
• If there is not a convenient place to do this, place some of the UV Blue powder on a makeup brush or paper towel and rub it on the participant's gloves, the suit, a big spot in the middle of the apron, and across the forehead of the person wearing the safety glasses.

Step Three

• Have the participants stand in the front of the room
• Turn out the lights and darken the room as much as possible.
• Have another participant shine the black light on the participants, revealing how much UV Blue is on their PPE and skin following the exercise.
• Have participants remove the PPE and shine the black light on them again to see how much UV Blue penetrated the PPE. The PPE should have greatly reduced the amount of UV Blue dye on these participants.

Step Four

• Have all participants wash their hands, foreheads, and other "exposed" areas.