Regulations generally recommend that chainsaw users wear protective clothing, also known as Personal Protective Equipment

Personal protective equipment

Personal protective equipment refers to protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garment or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury by blunt impacts, electrical hazards, heat, chemicals, and infection, for job-related occupational safety and health purposes, and in...

 or PPE, while operating chainsaw

Chainsaw

A chainsaw is a portable mechanical saw, powered by electricity, compressed air, hydraulic power, or most commonly a two-stroke engine...

s. There is general agreement worldwide on what clothing is suitable, but local jurisdictions have specific rules and recommendations.

Helmet

The helmet

Helmet

A helmet is a form of protective gear worn on the head to protect it from injuries.Ceremonial or symbolic helmets without protective function are sometimes used. The oldest known use of helmets was by Assyrian soldiers in 900BC, who wore thick leather or bronze helmets to protect the head from...

 attempts to protect the user's head against impact with the cutter bar of the chainsaw should a kickback occur. This can only be successful if the chain brake has operated to stop the cutter chain. A chain running at full speed easily cuts the helmet. A helmet also protects against impacts from small falling objects, such as a dead branch from a tree being felled.

The image shows a helmet which integrates visor and ear defenders into one unit. This is a very popular arrangement with chainsaw users.

In the EU, the helmet should meet the requirements of EN397.

Visor or goggles

A visor

Visor

A visor is a surface that protects the eyes, such as shading them from the sun or other bright light or protecting them from objects....

 or goggles

Goggles

Goggles or safety glasses are forms of protective eyewear that usually enclose or protect the area surrounding the eye in order to prevent particulates, water or chemicals from striking the eyes. They are used in chemistry laboratories and in woodworking. They are often used in snow sports as well,...

 reduce the chance of chips penetrating the user's eyes.

The relatively flimsy mesh visor, with imperfect coverage of the face, is considered acceptable because the chips produced by chainsaws are of relatively uniform size and speed. Unlike other woodworking tools, a chainsaw produces little or no sawdust, only chips. The chips are too large to fit through the visor's mesh.

Some chainsaw users prefer conventional safety glasses or goggles. The choice may depend on the environment. The visor provides better ventilation for hard work in hot weather. Often, both safety goggles and a visor are employed for superior protection.

In the EU, a visor must comply with EN1731, or glasses must comply with EN166.

Ear defenders

Ear defenders and ear plugs attenuate

Attenuation

In physics, attenuation is the gradual loss in intensity of any kind of flux through a medium. For instance, sunlight is attenuated by dark glasses, X-rays are attenuated by lead, and light and sound are attenuated by water.In electrical engineering and telecommunications, attenuation affects the...

 noise to levels that cause little or no damage to the user's hearing

Hearing (sense)

Hearing is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations through an organ such as the ear. It is one of the traditional five senses...

. The chainsaw is very loud, typically 115 dB

Decibel

The decibel is a logarithmic unit that indicates the ratio of a physical quantity relative to a specified or implied reference level. A ratio in decibels is ten times the logarithm to base 10 of the ratio of two power quantities...

.

In the EU, ear defenders must comply with EN352-1.

Trousers

Special fabrics

Textile

A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...

 have been developed for chainsaw clothing, and this development is still very active. Conventional fabric is useless at protecting against a running chainsaw, being immediately cut through.

There is a real struggle between making a fabric proof against more violent impact, and making it light, flexible and comfortable enough for the user. Clothes which make the user too hot, or which prevent the user moving easily, are a safety problem in themselves. A worker suffering from heat exhaustion is not safe. Extra fabric layers can be added to clothing to improve cut resistance, but clothes which cannot be cut at all by a powerful saw are impractical, even with modern fibres. What is worse, saw and chain technology seems to be outstripping fabric technology. High power saws with aggressively cutting chains are almost impossible to protect against.

A classification scheme has been developed in the EU to rate trousers, and fabric in general, for protection against cutting.

Chainsaw Fabric Classification

Class	Max chain speed
0	16 metres per second (35.8 mph) (3150 feet per minute)
1	20 metres per second (44.7 mph) (3937 feet per minute)
2	24 metres per second (53.7 mph) (4724 feet per minute)
3	28 metres per second (62.6 mph) (5512 feet per minute)

The chain speed is specified in the manual for a chainsaw. Higher class trousers cost more and are heavier, so there is an advantage to choosing the trousers to match the saw.

There are two standard types of trousers

Trousers

Trousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...

, type A and type C. Type A protects only the front of the legs, and can be supplied as chaps

Chaps

Chaps are sturdy coverings for the legs consisting of leggings and a belt. They are buckled on over trousers with the chaps' integrated belt, but unlike trousers they have no seat and are not joined at the crotch. They are designed to provide protection for the legs and are usually made of leather...

, worn over conventional work clothes, or as conventional trousers. Type C gives protection all round the legs and are almost always worn as ordinary trousers, not over another garment. Chaps are generally used for occasional, farm or homeowner applications. Professional chainsaw operators would choose trousers for comfort and ease of movement, with fallers, ground workers and firewood cutters opting for class A trousers because of the low risk of being cut in the back of the leg. Climbers and tree surgeons would have to wear type C, as they will be cutting from a wider variety of positions. Type C trousers are, of course, highly insulating, and may lead to heat stress if worn for labour intensive operations such as firewood cutting.

Chainsaw protective fabric works on a number of principles. The outermost layer can be made both tough and slippery, to protect against trivial damage which could compromise the filler material. Beneath this, long, loose fibres of ballistic nylon

Ballistic nylon

Ballistic nylon is a thick, tough, synthetic nylon fabric used for a variety of applications. Ballistic nylon was originally developed by the DuPont corporation as a material for flak jackets to be worn by World War II airmen...

 or Kevlar

Kevlar

Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...

 are laid in layers. When a saw contacts the trousers, the outer layer is immediately cut through but the nylon or Kevlar is drawn out and wraps around the saw's drive sprocket, locking it solid and halting the chain, limiting damage to the operator's leg. After stopping a saw, the trousers are scrapped, and the saw must be field-stripped to remove the fibres and allow it to run again.

Chainsaw protective trousers in the EU must comply with EN381-5.

Gloves

Chainsaw gloves have cut-proof fabric protection like that for trousers, but only on the back of the left hand. It's especially important that work gloves are flexible, which limits how much padding they can have. Experience has shown that most chainsaw injuries to the hands occur on the back of the left hand.

In the EU, chainsaw gloves must comply with EN381-7.

Boots

Chainsaw boots are based on ordinary steel-toe boots

Steel-toe boots

A steel-toe boot is a durable boot or shoe that has a protective reinforcement in the toe which protects the foot from falling objects or compression, usually it is combined with a mid sole plate to protect against punctures from below.Although traditionally made of steel, the reinforcement can...

, but have layers of chainsaw protective fabric on the exposed front surfaces. They are available in lace-up leather

Leather

Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

 or rubber

Rubber

Natural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...

 wellington boot

Wellington boot

The Wellington boot, also known as rubber-boots, wellies, wellingtons, topboots, billy-boots, gumboots, gummies, barnboots, wellieboots, muckboots, sheepboots, shitkickers, or rainboots are a type of boot based upon leather Hessian boots...

 versions. Popular manufacturers of chainsaw boots sold in Europe include Haix, Klima-Air, Meindel and Oregon.

In the EU, chainsaw boots must comply with EN345-2. These boots must be to the appropriate EN20345 standard for general safety footwear and must also be distinctively marked as suitable for chainsaw use, according to EN381-3

Protective chainsaw gaiters to EN381-9 over general steel-toe boots are acceptable for occasional users.

Chainsaw logo

In the EU, chainsaw trousers, boots and gloves (the items containing chainsaw protective fabric) must carry a special chainsaw logo. This shows that the fabric is of a type tested to protect properly, and also shows the class of protection, the rated maximum chain speed.

First aid kit

In the UK, workers are required to carry a first aid kit

First aid kit

A first aid kit is a collection of supplies and equipment for use in giving first aid, and can put together for the purpose , or purchased complete...

 containing at least a large wound

Wound

A wound is a type of injury in which skin is torn, cut or punctured , or where blunt force trauma causes a contusion . In pathology, it specifically refers to a sharp injury which damages the dermis of the skin.-Open:...

 dressing

Dressing (medical)

A dressing is an adjunct used by a person for application to a wound to promote healing and/or prevent further harm. A dressing is designed to be in direct contact with the wound, which makes it different from a bandage, which is primarily used to hold a dressing in place...

.

Whistle

In the UK, workers are recommended to carry a whistle

Whistle

A whistle or call is a simple aerophone, an instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means...

to call for help if they are injured. Colleagues may be close by, but unable to hear over the noise of chainsaw(s) still running. The whistle tends to overcome this.