The Wear-It Study, part of the PROTECT COVID-19 National Core Study, aims to measure and understand how people interact in the workplace.

HSE’s team of dedicated researchers has been joining forces with workplaces to generate detailed data on workers’ interactions and support national efforts to:

• better understand and control the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus which causes COVID-19) as we adapt to living with the disease
• develop our understanding of how we could better respond to future respiratory infectious disease outbreaks or pandemics if they occur

How is the data collected?

Small, wearable devices will be provided to willing workers at participating workplaces during an agreed period. These devices are used in combination with static beacons, which label the interactions collected by the wearables with location information.

Your help is needed 

Workplaces of interest include those with indoor operational areas, such as large offices, food and drink manufacturing, engineering, warehouses and fulfilment centres, and others – ideally with 50+ workers on site.

If your organisation is willing to take part, we would invite workers to wear small devices while at work for up to two weeks.

Find out more by reading the Wear-It Study invitation letter and express your interest by contacting our research team:

E: wear-it@hse.gov.uk
T: 02030 28 3456

If you are already using similar proximity technologies to help maintain social distancing in your workplace, we would be very grateful if you were willing to discuss the possibility of sharing anonymised contact data with the study team.

As an employer, you’re required by law to protect your employees, and others, from harm.

To meet this requirement, you will need to complete a risk assessment to assess the risks posed by your work practices and implement identified control measures.

Where your risk assessment identified the need for tight-fitting RPE  to protect against the inhalation of hazardous substances in workplace air, it is your responsibility to ensure that the RPE will protect the wearer.

The Approved Code of Practice for the Control of substances hazardous to health regulations 2002 requires that tight fitting RPE should be face fit tested by a competent individual as part of the selection process and to ensure there is an adequate seal between the selected RPE and the wearer’s face.

Face fit testing is important because if the RPE doesn’t fit correctly, the protection provided to the wearer will be greatly reduced and may lead to ill health or even put the RPE wearer’s life in danger.

When conducting a face fit test, and where tight-fighting RPE is used, to achieve a good seal between the tight-fitting respirator and the wearer’s face, the wearer will need to be clean shaven Face fit tests should not be conducted if there is any hair growth between the wearers skin and facepiece sealing surface, this includes, stubble beard growth, beard, moustache, sideburns, or a low hairline. If the respirator has an exhalation valve, hair within the sealed mask area should not impinge upon or contact the valve.

Being clean-shaven when wearing tight-fitting RPE prevents inward leakage of contaminated air from around the edges of the face seal being breathed into the lungs. It is also very important that the RPE is put on correctly and checked for a good fit every time it is put on.

You should note that under health and safety law, employers cannot require workers to be clean shaven; this is because alternative RPE to tight fitting respirators are available and can be used instead.

Further information and resources

Visit the HSE website for information on fit testing basics.

For more detailed information on fit testing RPE, read or download our publication Guidance on respiratory protective equipment fit testing