chuck55
New Member
I work for a County Highway department and we've been advised by our state safety regulatory agency that we're required to conform to the OSHA Logging Standard, a portion of which dictates the use of cut-resistant logging boots. We only cut trees immediately adjacent to the road right-of-way, and "logging" operations comprise only about 5% of the total work duties for a typical highway worker. As an alternative to classic logging boots, we proposed to the state the use of leather, water repellent, steel toe boots...which could then be worn as adequate protection for all the other jobs the worker does during the balance of his work day. They rejected that option (not totally cut resistant), so now we're considering other avenues. One of those is the use of Kevlar gaiters that strap onto the outside of a work boot, thereby protecting the instep and other area of the foot not protected by the steel toe. These "one-size-fits-all" gaiters would essentially be put on just as chaps are before commencing chainsaw work. This would eliminate the need for workers to lug around two sets of footwear (logger's boots and normal work boots)...depending upon what job activity they would be doing at any given moment. The thing is, the only place I've found such gaiters manufactured and for sale is in Great Britain or Europe...they don't seem to be made and/or available in the US. My question is whether anyone has had any experience with these gaiters (good/bad), and whether anything like them is available in the US?
