All you fans of the documentary Man On Wire …

About Philippe Petit’s famous walk between the Twin Towers …

Don’t you think the whole incident was … missing something?

See our Fall Protection items:

Harnesses

Lanyards

Lifelines

Anchor Points

Fall Protection Kits

I just read an online excerpt from a high-profile new book, but I’m not going to link to it, because I don’t want to do the least bit to help promote it. That’s right, I’m withholding even the tiny benefit of a fledgling industrial blog.

I took an instant dislike to the writer, a reaction that I think is part of his success formula: “I’ll get great word-of-mouth if I’m skilled at being a jerk.” He does have a way with words. He did an excellent job of channeling his ugly persona.

The author looks back many years to a summer job at a candy factory. Every week, someone had to scrub down a particular piece of equipment. He volunteered because the spot wasn’t easily inspected, and it gave him a chance to hide and do his summer college reading. So apparently that piece of equipment went uncleaned for months, and the person who took over in the fall had all the more scrubbing to do.

The author points out that the weekly cleaning was required by a health regulation. That reminds me of the tainted peanut processing plant in recent news. I’m sure that any one of us would feel better about a loved one’s dying from food poisoning if it stemmed from a lazy student’s wiley way of finding time to better himself.

But what did the Boy of Summer care about any of that? In September, it was back to college for him, on the way to a “better class” of life (his words) than those who remained “stranded” in the factory.

My father and uncles worked for decades in a factory. I worked in a factory for a summer (yes, I went to college that fall). Factory workers cover the whole range of personalities from champion to rat, the same as workers in offices, schools, churches, government or any other organization. You’re as low as any person in any job if you (a) don’t do your work in the first place and (b) assume you’re superior to anyone just because of what they do. Don’t assume you’re happier than the next person either, college education or not.

I’m writing this because so many of New Pig’s customers are in factories, and I despise this writer’s dismissal of factory workers as a whole. If you find out who he is (I hope I haven’t made it easy), dismiss him.

Image © James Steidl – Fotolia.com

Is that even possible?

Apparently.

He was a huge fan of The Hogs, and this hog is a huge fan of him.

Excuse me while a find a corner of my sty … and cry.

Image © Fotolia.com

Some of the emergency responders who use our protective equipment and spill kits will know that a thermal lance is a super-duper blowtorch often used to cut through metal for rescues; for instance, after a building collapses.

Usually, you have pure oxygen running through an iron pipe, and the fuel is iron and magnesium rods. But we now know an alternative to all that metal: bacon.

Scientist Theodore Gray created the multi-chambered tube shown below from slices of prosciutto (which he calls “engineering-grade bacon”) and duct-taped it onto an oxygen line.

Coming soon: Laser etching on particular PIG® products, including many of our PIG® DRAINBLOCKER® Drain Covers.

When you guarantee products forever like we do, it only makes sense to find the best way to make the labeling last as long as the product does. With our newest PIG® DRAINBLOCKER® Drain Covers—tougher than ever—that’s a looooooooooong time.

Our beloved local AA team, the Altoona Curve, is off to its worst start ever: 0-5.

So here’s a downer of a quiz that touches on both baseball and lockout/tagout.

1. How many total players are on three major league baseball teams (expanded roster)?
2. How many deaths are avoided each year by compliance with the lockout/tagout standard 29 CFR 1910.147?
3. How many seats are in the new Yankee Stadium, to the nearest 10,000?
4. How many injuries are prevented each year by compliance with the lockout/tagout standard?
5. What was Willie Mays’ number?
6. On average, how many workdays are lost to injuries from hazardous energy? (which lockout/tagout helps control)

Answers below. The OSHA numbers are found here.

The points are:

• Follow lockout/tagout procedures.
• Get your head in the game!

Glove image © Albo – Fotolia.com

Answers to 1 and 2: 120

Answers to 3 and 4: 50,000

Answers to 5 and 6: 24

Communication. It is essential when it comes to safety.

We communicate through email, trainings and job aids. Another way we try to communicate is through signs.

Workplaces have signs that tell you about everything from fire extinguisher locations to fork lift traffic and everything in between.

But did you know that the word you choose at the top of your safety sign is important? Did you know ‘caution’ means something different than ‘warning’?

MySafetySign.com realized this and created a helpful webpage that explains these differences.

This is a nice breakdown of the ANSI and OSHA definitions.

OSHA recently released a new guidance document called Assigned Protection Factors (APF) that helps employers better understand the requirements of the respiratory standard.

This document clarifies how to use the APF together with the Maximum Use Concentration (MUC) to help select the correct disposable respirators or reusable respirators for workers.

The APF relates to the level of respiratory protection that a respirator will provide when used properly. The APF varies with the type of respirator. For example, a paper dust mask and a half-mask air-purifying respirator both have an APF of 10, whereas a full-face air purifying respirator has an APF of 50.

The MUC is a related number that describes the maximum concentration of a contaminant that a given APR can handle. It is determined by multiplying the APF by the Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL), which can be found in the NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards.

The document also describes proper fit testing procedures, contains medical questionnaires, and outlines proper cleaning procedures for re-usable respirators.

It ‘s a great learning tool, and is good background reading for use with OSHA’s Respiratory E-Tool.

Their storage & handling was their downfall: Trackable plastic pallets lead to grand theft arrest.

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Here’s a nice overview of storage & handling related to flammables and combustibles written by an expert at Justrite. It touches on all of the following:

Spill Containment Pallets
Drums and Containers
Type I Safety Cans
Type II Safety Cans
Safety Cabinets
Chemical Storage Cabinets
Non-Combustible Waste Containers
Aerosol Can Disposal
Oily Waste Containers
Absorbents

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Both the EPA and Earth Day turn 39 this year. Click here for a video from Administrator Lisa Jackson.

A customer asked me to pass along how much he loves the Pigalog® catalog. He said that when it comes in the mail he goes through it like it’s the Toys R Us catalog for adults. He picks out what he wants and creates a wish list just like he did when he was a kid!

I thought that was such a wonderful compliment!

Click here to page through the Pigalog® catalog online

Click here to have your own copy of the Pigalog® sent to you