Refuelling involves both chemical and ignition hazards
Vehicle fuels present more than one type of risk.
Petrol and other volatile fuels can create potentially explosive atmospheres during dispensing. At the same time, fuels can present health hazards through incidental skin contact, splashes, vapour and contaminated surfaces.
Safe refuelling therefore requires these risks to be considered together.
Where PPE is selected to help control chemical exposure during vehicle refuelling, its suitability for use within the refuelling environment should also be considered.
For GripHero, this means designing PPE around the complete task - including electrostatic considerations - rather than considering the appropriate chemical protection in isolation.
Petrol and other volatile fuels can create potentially explosive atmospheres during dispensing. At the same time, fuels can present health hazards through incidental skin contact, splashes, vapour and contaminated surfaces.
Safe refuelling therefore requires these risks to be considered together.
Where PPE is selected to help control chemical exposure during vehicle refuelling, its suitability for use within the refuelling environment should also be considered.
For GripHero, this means designing PPE around the complete task - including electrostatic considerations - rather than considering the appropriate chemical protection in isolation.
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Why does static electricity matter?
Static electricity can accumulate when materials contact, separate or move against one another. Usually this goes unnoticed. In an atmosphere containing a sufficiently concentrated flammable vapour, however, an electrostatic discharge can potentially provide a source of ignition. This is why the management of potential ignition sources forms an important part of explosion-risk assessment at fuel installations. Fuel dispensing equipment incorporates extensive engineering controls intended to manage fire and explosion risks. These primary controls remain fundamental. PPE does not replace them. Instead, where PPE is introduced for another purpose - such as reducing incidental dermal contact with fuel - an important question should also be considered: Is the PPE appropriate for the potentially explosive environment in which it will be used? |
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PPE should be appropriate for the environment
Disposable hand protection is often selected primarily by considering whether it provides a barrier between the hand and a substance. For vehicle refuelling, that is only part of the assessment. The task can involve:
The characteristics of PPE should therefore reflect both what the user is being protected from and where the PPE will be used. This is one reason GripHero PPE has been developed specifically around the short-duration vehicle-refuelling task rather than simply adapting general-purpose disposable hand protection to the application. |
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Static-dissipative performance
GripHero PPE has been specifically developed with static-dissipative properties appropriate to the vehicle-refuelling environment. Its electrostatic performance has been independently tested and verified as part of GripHero's technical assessment of the PPE for its intended use. This provides objective evidence of an important characteristic when considering PPE intended to be used around fuel dispensing operations. Why is that important? While site engineering controls remain the primary safety functions, disposable hand protection should not simply be assumed to have appropriate electrostatic characteristics because it is thin, plastic or commonly supplied at a filling station. Materials can behave differently when electrostatic charge is generated. Where electrostatic performance is relevant to the intended environment, suitability should be demonstrated rather than assumed. GripHero has done that work as part of developing PPE specifically for vehicle refuelling. |
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Static safety is one part of PPE suitability
Electrostatic performance should not be considered in isolation. Selecting PPE for vehicle refuelling involves balancing several characteristics against the reasonably foreseeable exposure, task and environment. GripHero PPE has therefore been developed around a combination of requirements relevant to routine vehicle refuelling, including: Chemical barrier performance Helping reduce direct skin contact from brief incidental contact with surface fuel residue. Static-dissipative performance Providing electrostatic characteristics appropriate to the potentially explosive refuelling environment. Dexterity Allowing the user to operate the fuel nozzle, payment equipment and vehicle controls without unnecessarily compromising the task. Innocuousness Material assessed for characteristics relevant to safe contact with the wearer. Single-use protection Helping avoid carrying fuel contamination from the dispensing area into the vehicle, workplace, food or other frequently touched surfaces. Environmental efficiency Providing protection proportionate to a short-duration task, without automatically resorting to substantially heavier chemical-protective gloves for more demanding immersion exposure scenarios. The objective is not to provide the greatest possible level of protection against every conceivable hazard. It is to provide PPE appropriate to the assessed risk, intended use and environment. |
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The wider hierarchy of control
Static-dissipative PPE should never be presented as the primary protection against fire or explosion at a filling station.
The safe management of potentially explosive atmospheres begins much earlier.
Fuel installations incorporate engineering and operational controls including equipment design, hazardous-area classification, vapour management, equipment inspection and maintenance, ignition-source control and safe operating procedures.
These primary controls remain fundamental.
GripHero complements these controls; it does not replace them.
Its purpose is to help address another part of the refuelling risk assessment: providing appropriate protection against residual incidental chemical contact while also considering the environment in which that protection will be used.
Static-dissipative PPE should never be presented as the primary protection against fire or explosion at a filling station.
The safe management of potentially explosive atmospheres begins much earlier.
Fuel installations incorporate engineering and operational controls including equipment design, hazardous-area classification, vapour management, equipment inspection and maintenance, ignition-source control and safe operating procedures.
These primary controls remain fundamental.
GripHero complements these controls; it does not replace them.
Its purpose is to help address another part of the refuelling risk assessment: providing appropriate protection against residual incidental chemical contact while also considering the environment in which that protection will be used.
Chemical protection and static safety should be considered together
As the health hazards associated with fuels receive greater attention, organisations are increasingly considering how residual chemical exposure during routine refuelling should be assessed and controlled.
Where a health risk assessment identifies PPE as an appropriate control measure, simply providing “a glove” does not complete the assessment.
The assessor should consider whether the PPE is:
For vehicle refuelling, chemical protection and electrostatic behaviour are therefore interconnected considerations.
A control measure introduced to reduce one risk should not unnecessarily introduce another.
As the health hazards associated with fuels receive greater attention, organisations are increasingly considering how residual chemical exposure during routine refuelling should be assessed and controlled.
Where a health risk assessment identifies PPE as an appropriate control measure, simply providing “a glove” does not complete the assessment.
The assessor should consider whether the PPE is:
- appropriate for the chemical exposure being controlled;
- appropriate for the duration and nature of the task;
- suitable for the environment in which it will be used;
- capable of allowing the task to be performed safely; and
- compliant with applicable PPE requirements for its intended use.
For vehicle refuelling, chemical protection and electrostatic behaviour are therefore interconnected considerations.
A control measure introduced to reduce one risk should not unnecessarily introduce another.
Designed around vehicle refuelling
GripHero PPE has been developed specifically for routine vehicle refuelling.
It is intended to help protect against brief, incidental contact with fuel residue during the normal dispensing task - not immersion, prolonged chemical handling or higher-exposure industrial activities requiring substantially different PPE.
This intended-use approach allows protection to be proportionate to the task.
GripHero PPE combines characteristics including:
Combined with GripHero's point-of-use dispensing systems and chemical hazard communication, this creates an integrated approach to vehicle-refuelling protection.
GripHero PPE has been developed specifically for routine vehicle refuelling.
It is intended to help protect against brief, incidental contact with fuel residue during the normal dispensing task - not immersion, prolonged chemical handling or higher-exposure industrial activities requiring substantially different PPE.
This intended-use approach allows protection to be proportionate to the task.
GripHero PPE combines characteristics including:
- static-dissipative performance;
- verified chemical barrier performance;
- high repellency and low absorption;
- high dexterity;
- PFAS-free construction; and
- a substantially reduced material and carbon footprint compared with conventional disposable glove solutions.
Combined with GripHero's point-of-use dispensing systems and chemical hazard communication, this creates an integrated approach to vehicle-refuelling protection.
From risk assessment to practical protection
A health and safety assessment should not begin by asking:
“Which glove should we provide?”
It should begin by understanding the task.
For vehicle refuelling this means considering the fuel hazards, foreseeable routes of exposure, frequency and duration of the activity, existing engineering controls, potentially explosive environment, people who may be exposed and the residual risks that remain.
Only then should appropriate additional controls — including PPE where necessary — be selected.
GripHero supports organisations through this complete process:
Health risk assessment → Chemical hazard communication → Appropriate control measures → Purpose-designed refuelling PPE
Static-dissipative performance forms one important part of that wider system.
A health and safety assessment should not begin by asking:
“Which glove should we provide?”
It should begin by understanding the task.
For vehicle refuelling this means considering the fuel hazards, foreseeable routes of exposure, frequency and duration of the activity, existing engineering controls, potentially explosive environment, people who may be exposed and the residual risks that remain.
Only then should appropriate additional controls — including PPE where necessary — be selected.
GripHero supports organisations through this complete process:
Health risk assessment → Chemical hazard communication → Appropriate control measures → Purpose-designed refuelling PPE
Static-dissipative performance forms one important part of that wider system.
Protecting consumers and people who refuel for work
The same dispensing equipment can be used by very different people.
For one person, refuelling may be an occasional consumer activity.
For another, it may be a routine part of their work — including fleet drivers, couriers, hauliers, engineers, emergency-service personnel, public-sector workers and other occupational drivers.
The frequency of exposure and the responsibilities surrounding that activity can therefore be very different.
GripHero enables fuel operators and employers to provide practical protection at the point where fuel is actually dispensed — combining visible hazard information with immediate access to PPE designed around the refuelling task.
The same dispensing equipment can be used by very different people.
For one person, refuelling may be an occasional consumer activity.
For another, it may be a routine part of their work — including fleet drivers, couriers, hauliers, engineers, emergency-service personnel, public-sector workers and other occupational drivers.
The frequency of exposure and the responsibilities surrounding that activity can therefore be very different.
GripHero enables fuel operators and employers to provide practical protection at the point where fuel is actually dispensed — combining visible hazard information with immediate access to PPE designed around the refuelling task.
One task. Multiple considerations.
Routine vehicle refuelling should not be overstated as a high-risk activity.
But neither should individual aspects of the task be considered in isolation.
Fire and explosion safety.
Chemical exposure.
Hazard communication.
PPE suitability.
Static safety.
Each forms part of understanding and appropriately controlling the refuelling environment.
GripHero brings these considerations together in a practical system designed specifically for the point of fuel dispensing.
Safer vehicle refuelling starts with understanding the task.
Assess the risk. Communicate the hazards. Control exposure. Provide appropriate protection.
Routine vehicle refuelling should not be overstated as a high-risk activity.
But neither should individual aspects of the task be considered in isolation.
Fire and explosion safety.
Chemical exposure.
Hazard communication.
PPE suitability.
Static safety.
Each forms part of understanding and appropriately controlling the refuelling environment.
GripHero brings these considerations together in a practical system designed specifically for the point of fuel dispensing.
Safer vehicle refuelling starts with understanding the task.
Assess the risk. Communicate the hazards. Control exposure. Provide appropriate protection.
