Overview
All protective clothing should be routinely inspected to insure continued serviceability. This inspection should take place after each cleaning, and following any application where the clothing may have been damaged or contaminated. Damaged clothing should be immediately removed from service until the decision to repair or retire has been made by the safety officer or his designee. All clothing should be cleaned prior to inspection. The following represent minimum criteria for inspection and should be considered basic rather then all inclusive.

Char and Heat Damage
All 3 layers should be examined for charred, burned, or discolored areas that may result in loss of tensile strength and material degradation. To check for weakening of fabric, aggressively flex the material and attempt to push a finger or thumb through the fabric.

Fabric or Material Damage
Clothing that has become torn, ripped, cut, abraded or otherwise damaged by wear should be repaired. All Moisture Barrier material, including sleeve well assemblies, should be checked for peeling or cracking, which are signs of wear and require replacement.

Thread or Seam Damage
All seams in each separate layer of the garment shall be inspected for thread or seam damage and restitched as necessary.

Discoloration
Discoloration to any of the 3 layers of the protective clothing should be evaluated. Check all discolored or faded areas for tensile strength by aggressively flexing the material and attempting to push a finger or thumb through the fabric. Any loss of strength or weakening of the materials to the degree where the material can be torn with manual pressure is a sign of deterioration and the garment should be removed from service for repair or retirement. Discoloration of the Moisture Barrier layer may indicate abrasion or other damage that would render the fabric incapable of preventing water entry.

Moisture Barriers
There is a simple field test you can perform to check any Moisture Barrier: Place your Liner on a flat surface (or over a bucket) with the dry Thermal Liner facing down and dry Moisture Barrier facing up. Pour about 1/2 cup of water on the Moisture Barrier and wait a few minutes. If the water passes through the Moisture Barrier and wets the Thermal Liner, your Liner should be removed from service and repaired or replaced. Perform this simple test in high abrasion areas like the broadest part of the shoulders, at the knee, or the seat of the pants), or where you have detected other potential damage to the Shell or Thermal Liner. It is difficult to determine with any certainty whether your Moisture Barrier leaks by looking at either the film or the fabric it’s laminated to.

Knit Distortion
All knit areas of the garments shall be examined for loss of strength, loss of shape, or loss of elasticity.

Reflective Trim
Trim that is loose but still reflective may be restitched, while trim that has become burned or otherwise damaged must be replaced. Note that the trim may appear to be undamaged to the human eye when it has actually lost much of the ability to reflect. To check for continued reflectivity, perform a simple “flashlight” test. Standing a minimum of 40 feet from the trim sample to be examined, hold a flashlight at eye level and aim the light beam at the sample to be evaluated. Compare the brightness of the reflected light coming back to a sample of “new” or unused trim. If the reflected light is substantially less than that seen on the new trim, the trim needs to be replaced.

Hardware
Check all hardware, including snaps and dee rings, pocket snaps, zippers, and take-up buckles to insure functionality. Velcro® should be inspected to insure that contamination has not affected functionality and that stitching remains secure.

Retirement
In general, once a garment has reached the point where repairs will cost more than 50% of the price of a new garment, it should be retired. When considering retirement, the authority having jurisdiction should take into account things like the amount of ground-in soil contained in the garment, any stains or clinging debris of unknown origin, and overall condition of each individual layer. If the fibers of the various layers are beginning to show wear in the form of abrasion, especially in high stress areas such as the Outer Shell inseam of Trousers, there is no way to restore them to like new condition, nor any way in which to prevent further breakdown. Repair to garments with these conditions are usually not cost effective.

In Conclusion
Eeach and every one of the items contained in this bulletin should be considered when trying to decide if a garment has reached its useful life span. The bottom line, regardless of when the clothing was produced, is that the safety officer or authority having jurisdiction must routinely inspect protective clothing in order to assure that it is clean, maintained, and still safe. Just knowing the age of the garments cannot do that and for safety sake, any judgment call should be made erring on the side of caution.