What is lightweight, easy on the environment, free, and full of fun, helpful information that will make your life easier?

It is the Big Pigalog® 2012 online catalog.

Now finding the tools to make your job easier is just a mouse click away. PIG® Mat, Spill Kits, Wipers, Personal and Plant Safety, and much more are all online and ready for your perusal.

The Big Pigalog® 2012 catalog is packed full of amazing products, great deals, important information and, of course, lots of PIG® fun.

Check out the new Big Pigalog® 2012 online catalog for everything you need to keep your workplace clean and safe.

For those who love that new Big Pigalog® catalog smell and relish the feeling of the Big Pigalog® catalog in your hands, just call 1-800-HOT-HOGS® or send a request online.

Whether online or in-hand, the Big Pigalog® 2012 catalog is sure to be a PIG® hit!

See what happens when oil and water mix, and how PIG® Oil Absorbent Mats come the rescue in our latest video

No more extensions.

Unless you’re a farmer, if you have more than 1,320 gallons of oil or oil products stored aboveground; or you have more than 42,000 gallons of oil or oil products stored underground; today’s the deadline for having your SPCC plan created, updated and implemented.

Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plans help prevent releases of oil and oil products into navigable waters.   The main focus of these plans is preventing spills from occuring, rather than just responding to them after they occur.

Secondary containment plays a major role in SPCC planning.    Containers – such as drums, totes and tanks – must all have “sized containment;” meaning that they need to have something surrounding them that is capable of holding all of the contents of the container, should it fail.     Spill pallets, Collapse-A-Tainers® and tank containment units are three ways to satisfy this requirement.  In some areas, earthen berms are acceptable.    For large outdoor tank farms, concrete walls are a common way to satisfy this need.

Transfer areas need to meet “general secondary containment” requirements, which means that plans must be created for the most likely spill that could occur.   Spill kits, Drainblocker® Drain Covers and Spillblocker® Dikes are excellent resources for these needs.

For facilities with less than 10,000 gallons of oil onsite, and less than 5,000 gallons aboveground, who have not had a spill within the past three years, a Tier I planning template is available on the EPA’s website.    Tier I plans do not need to be certified by a professional engineer (PE).    

For facilities who do not meet Tier I requirements and who need a professional engineer (PE) to sign-off on their plan, the EPA maintains a list of  State Professional Engineer (PE) licensing board contacts (PDF).

Not quite finished writing or implementing your plan?   Waiting for a PE’s signature?   You can write to your regional EPA office about an extension.

Want to know more about SPCC?  Check out our white paper:  SPCC Solutions.     Need proven products to help you comply?   Give us a call at 1-800-HOT-HOGS® (468-4647) or visit our website at www.newpig.com

It’s true that the more often a piece of information is repeated, the more likely a person is to remember it. Take the number 3349.

3349 does not seem significant. In fact, it is hard to connect 3349 to anything. A person would be hard-pressed to even come up with a correlation to 3349.

But 3349 is important. Why is 3349 so important? Because 3349 is the booth number for New Pig at the National Safety Council’s 2011 Congress and Expo in Philadelphia, PA from October 31 to Nov. 2.

So stop by booth 3349 to meet the New Pig team who will be sharing great innovative solutions to keep your workplace safe, clean and productive.

You can even get your first look at PIG® Grippy® Mat– the revolutionary absorbent mat that stays put no matter what™.

Hope to see you there (at booth #3349, of course)

Helping to keep workplaces cleaner and safer is what we do!  So when we saw workers slipping, sliding and tripping on traditional multi-layer well pad liners at hydraulic fracturing (fracking) sites, we knew we could create a better solution.

The PIG™ Well Pad Liner, recently announced as a Environmental Protection New Product of the Year Award winner,  is a durable, single-layer, nonslip liner that help protects workers from slips and falls;  and the environment from incidental leaks and spills at drilling sites. It is four times stronger than standard HDPE liners used at drilling sites, twice as tear resistant, and is UV resistant for long-term outdoor use.

We’ve been keeping Matt and his crews pretty busy installing them at drilling sites all over Pennsylvania, helping to keep workers and the environment safe at drilling sites.

Farms that are subject to SPCC Planning Regulations have received a grace period from the EPA, according to an October 18 Federal Register Notice.

Instead of the looming November 10, 2011 deadline that everyone else must meet, farms that began operation on or before August 16, 2002 now have until May 10, 2013 to ammend and implement their SPCC Plan.

The deadline extension has been granted, in part, to assist the farmers who were heavily impacted by recent flooding and fires.

The EPA has also issued a fact sheet discussing the ammendment and offering additional resources for information.

Need more information on SPCC planning or SPCC products to help you comply?   Give us a call!

Safety signs and symbols help communicate hazards.   Recently,  the ANSI Z535 standards for signage in industrial and consumer products, workplaces and public spaces were updated.

Thess standards allow everyone from ink manufacturers to sign makers to use one set of “rules” for the design, application, and use of safety signs, labels, tags, tapes, colors, and symbols.

The standards in the Z535 Series include:

ANSI Z535.1-2011 – Safety Colors

• Provides color standards and tolerances as well as technical definitions

ANSI Z535.2-2011 Environmental and facility safety signs

• Describes the five types of safety signs used in facilities and outlines their use for consistent reinforcement and prevention of injury

ANSI Z535.3-2011 Criteria for safety symbols

• Lists criteria for use of safety symbols to identify specific hazards and help perople avoid injury.

ANSI Z535.4-2011 Product safety signs and labels

• Sets design criteria for use of safety signs on products

ANSI Z535.5-2011 Safety tags and barricade tapes (for temporary hazards)

• Provides design, application and use criteria for barricade tape, tags and other means of identifying temporary hazards.

ANSI Z535.6-2011 Product safety information in product manuals, instructions, and other collateral materials

• Provides information for providing clear, effective safety instructions such as owner’s manuals, assembly instructions, user guides and maintenance instructions

ANSI Z353-2011 Safety color chart

• Lists  ink specifications for the Z535 safety colors.

The standards can be purchased as a set or individually on ANSI’s website   http://www.ansi.org

To help you comply with these standards, we stock a wide variety of safety signs, tags, barricade tape and other products to help you comply.   We can even custom-design signs to meet your specific needs.

Nonwoven textiles have become a staple for everything from re-usable shopping totes to wipers to absorbents and more!

This article discusses how the market for nonwovens keeps evolving – and features New Pig’s own Dan Silver talking about our newest innovation – PIG® Grippy® Mat !!!

http://www.nonwovens-industry.com/articles/2011/10/industrial-nonwovens

Haven’t tried PIG® Grippy® Mat yet? Give us a call! We’ll get a free sample out for you today.

 National Preparedness Month is wrapping up.

In addition to preparing your families for emergencies, make sure that your facility is also prepared for disasters that may strike your workplace.

Emergencies can take many forms – from a chemical spill to a severe weather event to a terrorist attack.  A good contingency plan will address each possible scenario that could effect your workplace,  as well as actions that will be taken to minimize further damage.

This month, an earthquake shook Virginia and a good portion of the east coast. We felt it in Tipton, PA; and for many of us, it was our first experience with such a phenomenon.

For many facilities in the east, earthquake preparedness isn’t necessarily something we’ve spent a lot of time planning for - because until now, earthquakes haven’t really been prevalent in the area.  Severe snowstorms, power outages, floods and very cold weather – yes.   Earthquakes and volcano erruptions - not so much.

But now that an earthquake has happened here, and is among the possibilities for disaster;  it’s time to dust off that plan and add a chapter.    I think I’m still okay without a volcano chapter, though.

For those of you who are already have a plan for earthquakes – good for you!    But just like you check the batteries in your smoke detectors when Daylight Savings Time rolls around, National Preparedness Month is a good time to double-check your facility’s contingency plans for anything that might be missing, or for any changes that may need to be made.

It’s also a great time to check your spill response kits to make sure that they’re well-stocked and ready to go in the event of a spill.

And, if your facility doesn’t have a contingency plan, there’s never a better time than now to get started!    The EPA has some good information to help   http://www.epa.gov/emergencies/content/preparing.htm.

Your local emergency management agency (EMA) is also another excellent resource.    Often, they have templates to help get you started, and many will even help you write your plans.   Local EMA staff can also help you identify response resources and assets that you may not be aware of – and they may even be able to help you coordinate a respone drill with local fire or hazmat teams.

Creating and maintaining a contingency plan takes a dedicated effort – but it sure beats the alternative!   If I need a backhoe after an emergency, I take comfort in knowing that I don’t have to find a phonebook to locate one… and that I won’t be meeting the county hazmat team for the first time.

When I was in college, I was given a wonderful opportunity to follow a group of ROTC cadets for a month as part of a feature article for a local newspaper.

It was a fantastic experience.  I got to meet some really amazing people, tour parts of the Pentagon that most civilians don’t get to see, stay in an army barracks, and really gain a deeper understanding of the level of commitment and dedication that our armed forces has.

So what does this have to do with fall prevention?

One crisp Saturday morning, these cadets boarded a bus to go practice their repelling skills.    After a lunch of MRE’s, (I got lucky and didn’t pull the chipped beef one) we all donned harnesses and checked our ropes as the instructor reviewed safety protocols.  

One part of his instruction has stuck with me to this day: “You can die from a five foot fall or a 50 foot fall.  The only difference is the time it takes to hit the ground.”

Although the likelihood of dying from a five foot fall is smaller than from the 50 foot fall, his point is still valid:  the potential exists.  And, in the workplace, OSHA requires employers to evaluate hazards and create plans to eliminate them.    OSHA is currently working on a general industry standard for fall protection.  The construction standard for fall safety is 29 CFR 1926, Subpart M.

If there is a potential for a “drop” of more than four feet, employers need to provide some kind of fall protection for their employees.    For anyone just getting started on a plan, OSHA  has a dedicated webpage with additional guidance.  http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/fallprotection/index.html

Fall protection harnesses and lanyards may be part of the plan.    Safety rails and ladder safety gates may also play a role.  Even the simplest of plans has the potential to  help someone avoid one of the more than 800 fatal falls that occur in industry each year.