Mears & Beards

Posted on June 5, 2017

Construction firm Mears has stipulated that any workers who are required to wear a tight fitting respirator must be clean shaven!

Outsourced housing maintenance company Mears issued the advice to workers during a “tool box talk” in Tower Hamlets.

The company says it requires all workers to be clean shaven in order to “wear appropriate dust masks effectively.”

The company will only make exceptions if a worker can’t shave for medical reasons, if a dust mask cannot be worn for medical reasons or a person has a beard for religious purposes.

Medical certificates must be provided in the first two instances, with a note from a church, mosque, synagogue or temple demanded in the second.

Unite national health and safety advisors said: ” the use of RPE may be one of the control measures, but the wearing of face masks should be a last resort”.

After implementing other controls, on the majority of construction sites dust still may present as a hazard as a final resort operatives should then wear effective respiratory protection.

Mark Elkington, group health and safety director of Mears Group, said: “We are pretty surprised that Unite, who claim to have the safety of workers at heart have taken this disappointing stance.

“The simple fact is that no dust mask can work effectively unless it forms a seal against the skin. That is not possible with a beard or even heavy stubble. If the Health and Safety Executive did a spot site visit and found workers wearing dust masks that were not sealed against the face then we would be liable to prosecution”.

You can see below our infographic which outlines what face fit testing is and why it is required –