Most PPE has very real tradeoffs. Respirators are uncomfortable, especially in hot weather. Safety glasses get dusty and smudged. Gloves limit dexterity. Mortar mixer grates make it difficult to clean unmixed sand and mortar from the sides. Safety harnesses take time to donn and doff and limit mobility. It's rare that the safest procedure is the quickest and cheapest.
As a society, we've decided that we are willing to pay the price to keep our workers safe on the job. But it only works if our regulators are effective and make the costs of noncompliance greater than the costs of compliance.
Safety equipment can introduce new dangers too, both from correct use, and from refusal to use it
For example a hard hat might be fine, people generally are happy with that - they see the benefit, they see things falling, job done.
but then you add a ton more stuff which has decreasing benefit and increasing cost to use (in terms of comfort as well as time and dollars) and eventually the worker says “fuck it” and doesn’t even wear the hat.
there is always a balance to be had. We do the same in domestic life - we make motor cyclists wear helmets, but not car passengers. If we made all car occupants wear a helmet we would reduce head injuries for occupants in car crashes. But that would be ridiculous.
As a society, we've decided that we are willing to pay the price to keep our workers safe on the job. But it only works if our regulators are effective and make the costs of noncompliance greater than the costs of compliance.