At least two times a year, New Pig hosts the American Red Cross Bloodmobile so Piggers have an easy and convenient way to donate blood.

During today’s visit, New Pig surpassed its goal by 4 pints by donating 24 pints of blood to the Red Cross.

Cheryl, a loyal, blood-giving Pigger, waits patiently to donate.

By the way, if any of that blood should spill … here’s how to be ready.

I don’t want to include a link to the story, but I just read about a worker’s dying back in May while performing maintenance inside a large ice machine that suddenly powered up. The details are disturbing: OSHA found that the company had done nothing to protect workers as it relates to maintaining this machine: no safety measures or training. The person killed may not even have understood there was danger.

It’s a sad reminder that lockout/tagout helps prevent death and injury and that it’s vital for companies to meet their responsibilities to worker safety.

Better late than never, here are some photos taken this past August at X Games 15, where insane daredevils highly-skilled athletes compete in events such as skateboarding, motocross, BMX and rally car racing. We donated some PIG® 4 IN 1® Universal Absorbent Mat for some of the techs to use behind the scenes, soaking up messes AND acting as a seat (quick, change it to “5 IN 1″!).

News item: Clorox to stop using chlorine to make bleach

Okay, time out.

So Clorox is going to stop using chlorine gas which is transported by rail—the safest form of transportation—in double-walled, insulated tanker cars with reinforced ends and all of the valves and gateways guarded. (Thank you FEMA AW 147 rail car incident class that I took two weeks ago!!)

Greenpeace applauds, the news release says, but that questioning voice you hear above the clapping is mine.

Let’s all put on our properly fit-tested SCBAs so we’re not overcome by the green cloud and consider what this means.

Now Clorox will be transporting bulk quantities of liquid sodium hypochlorite, which can be shipped in a “general service” single-wall rail tank car with no reinforced ends and no protection on the valves and gateways.

In the event of a derailment, guess which of these two types of rail car is more likely to breech???

With chlorine gas, you can evacuate the area and let the cloud dissipate. With a sodium hypochlorite spill, you’ll be digging up soil for months—and guess what:  That soil’s offgassing the pollutants the entire time. 

And guess what else—just because Clorox is going to stop using chlorine doesn’t necessarily translate to less chlorine on the rails or on the road.  

Guess how you make sodium hypochlorite: You react dilute a caustic soda solution with liquid or gaseous chlorine.   So chlorine is still going to be transported.  Most likely by rail.

This is a good thing??  What am I missing?

Yes, it will be safer for Clorox employees— and kudos to Clorox for that—but I just don’t see the environmental triumph. 

Image © Beth Van Trees - Fotolia.com