Safety

PPE Hazard Assessment Form

The equipment is the easy part. 1910.132(d) requires the employer to assess the workplace for hazards that make PPE necessary, and then to verify that assessment through a written certification. This is that certification.

Stencil print of PPE set out beside a clipboard — Hard hat, eye protection and gloves laid out on a gang box before a phase starts.

1910.132(d)(2) requires a written certification, and it names exactly four things it must contain: the workplace evaluated, the person certifying, the dates, and a statement identifying the document as a certification of hazard assessment. This form carries all four.

Notice

Certification

This document is a certification of hazard assessmentrequired1910.132(d)(2) — the document must identify itself as oneWorkplace evaluatedrequired1910.132(d)(2)Person certifying the evaluationrequired1910.132(d)(2)Date(s) of the hazard assessmentrequired1910.132(d)(2)

Hazards by body part

Head — impact, falling objects, electrical1926.100Eyes and face — flying particles, chemical splash, light1926.102Hands — abrasion, cuts, chemical, temperature1926.95Feet — impact, puncture, compression, electrical1926.96Hearing — noise level and duration1926.101Respiratory — dust, silica, fumes1926.1153(c)

Selection and fit

PPE selected for each hazard aboverequired1910.132(d)(1)(i)Selection decisions communicated to each affected employeerequired1910.132(d)(1)(ii)PPE selected to properly fit each affected employeerequired1910.132(d)(1)(iii)Who pays: employer pays except non-specialty safety-toe footwear and non-specialty prescription eyewear allowed off-site1926.95(d)

Four elements make it a certification

1910.132(d)(2) is unusually specific about what the document has to contain. A form missing any one of the four is not the certification the standard asks for.

Element	What goes in it
The workplace evaluated	The site, and the specific area or task — not the company name
The person certifying	A name, not a department
The date(s) of assessment	When the walk happened, not when the form was typed
An identifying statement	Words on the document identifying it AS a certification of hazard assessment

Read from 29 CFR 1910.132(d)(2) on 2026-09-04.

Notice

The fourth element catches people out. A hazard list with a signature is not a certification unless the document says it is one. The line is one sentence long and it is on the form above.

Who pays: the rule and its two exceptions

1910.132(h) is the default: protective equipment used to comply with the part shall be provided by the employer at no cost to employees. The employer is not required to pay for non-specialty safety-toe protective footwear (including steel-toe shoes or boots) or non-specialty prescription safety eyewear, provided the employer permits those items to be worn off the jobsite.

That proviso is the whole exception. If the boots have to stay in the gang box, the exception does not apply and the employer pays. The rest of the kit — hard hats, gloves, hearing protection, respirators, harnesses — is on the employer regardless.

Head protection: what the standard actually names

1926.100(b)(1) lists three acceptable consensus standards — ANSI Z89.1-2009, Z89.1-2003 and Z89.1-1997 — and deems any device the employer demonstrates is at least as effective to be in compliance. Where an employee is exposed to high-voltage electric shock and burns, the head protection also has to meet Section 9.7, “Electrical Insulation”, of one of those standards.

Types, classes and the truth about expiry dates are in hard hat requirements.

Reassess when the work changes, not on a schedule

The standard does not set a review interval, so the honest trigger is a change in the hazard: a new phase, a new material, a new process, or an incident that shows the selection was wrong. Attach the reassessment to the phase, the way the JHA is.

Eye and face protection in construction (1926.102) was the ninth most cited federal standard in fiscal year 2024, which is a fair indication of how often the selection half of this exercise gets skipped. What is required head to foot is set out in PPE requirements for construction.

Sources, with the date each was read

29 CFR 1910.132 — General requirements, personal protective equipment (OSHA)read 2026-09-04
29 CFR 1926.100 — Head protection (OSHA)read 2026-09-04
Commonly Used Statistics — top 10 cited standards, FY2024 (OSHA)read 2026-09-04