Work Safety Boots: Wearing Appropriate and Safe Work Footwear

Working in a heavy-duty Australian industry may pose many risks for you. So, your company may follow a mandatory requirement to wear personal protective equipment to prevent injuries. However, you may be baffled while choosing an appropriate and safe pair of work footwear.

You can try steel-toed boots or Oliver work boots to ensure maximum safety. These boots meet the set standards of Australian workplace safety footwear, and most industry professionals rely on them to prevent foot injuries. 

Are you curious about how to choose sturdy safety boots for work? This post can help you buy the ideal pair of footwear for your workplace. Read on!

Why Are Work Safety Footwear Essential?

Most workplaces in Australia require their employees to use personal protective equipment for foot protection. Thus, they recommend wearing sturdy safety boots. 

Your safety boots can prevent injuries from slippery surfaces, rolling or heavy objects, hot objects, or any hazard.  

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA has advised organisations to use protective footwear while working in areas prone to foot injuries. 

You may know steel-toed boots as the traditional safety footwear. However, you can also find varied types of footwear for safety at your workplace. You need to consider the following features of footwear to select suitable boots. 

• Puncture and cut resistance
• Water, heat, and cold resistance
• The material used in safety shoes and their effectiveness to resistant hazards
• Work environment and associated hazards
• Electric resistance

Choosing Your Shoes: Things to Consider

The primary factor to consider while choosing your safety work footwear is the hazard on site. If you work on a site prone to the risk of heavy objects falling, you can buy steel-toed boots. They are ideal protective footwear for safeguarding you from myriads of hazards in various work sites. 

Although you may want to consider if steel-toed boots are ideal for you, after calculating the hazard risk at your worksite, you may need ankle support safety boots. Alternatively, your work site may demand caustic resistance safety boots or waterproof boots.

So, it is not necessary that steel-toed boots may be ideal for all kinds of workplace hazards. 

Note: The international standard footwear certified specification ASTM F2413 is a performance requirement for protective Safety toe-cap footwear. 

To identify whether your work footwear is safe, ensure it meets the international standard ASTM F2413. By that token, any shoes meeting ASTM F2413 standards are classified as protective footwear. 

Essentially, your boots must meet the impact and compression resistance parameters to complete the set standard requirements. The pointers below are additional parameters needed to meet the standard. 

• Metatarsal protection
• Conductive protection
• Electric hazard resistance 
• Static dissipative protection 
• Protection against punctures

Several companies in Australia recommend Australian-made elastic-sided boots with sole comfort technology. This type of safety boots has become a popular choice as it is equipped with extra thick and comfortable innersole. 

What Makes Good Work Safety Footwear?

Primarily, two main safety features determine good work safety footwear. The first feature is protection against workplace health and safety risks. Foot health from an orthopaedic perspective and the footwear aligning your foot health is the second feature to consider. 

Plus, your footwear will play a role in the health of your feet, so choose your footwear wisely. In a nutshell, good work safety footwear protects against workplace hazards and aligns with your foot health. 

You may want to cross-check your company guidelines on safety at the workplace or refer to the Australian Safety guidelines and codes of practices. 

The information collected through these sources can also benefit you in assessing your workplace risk of hazards, covering major risks and preventing injuries. 

Final Words

With decent workplace boots, you can work on your foot health and prevent a hazard. You can meet the acceptable standards by rectifying the workplace hazard and purchasing boots accordingly. Some brands, such as Oliver work boots, manufacture workplace-appropriate safety boots. 

Use a foot protection guide to understand the appropriate footwear for work. Purchase footwear only if they meet the set standard ASTM F2413.