This is a great idea: A historical tour related to industrial hazards.

It’s 1,100 miles by bus, with five stops covering 150 years of environmental and occupational health and safety: a coal mine, a steel plant, an automotive factory complex, a chemical plant and Love Canal.

The tourists are twenty-five college students and nine faculty from six universities and a range of disciplines including nursing, occupational safety, industrial hygiene and ergonomics. They’ll explore work hazards and share a multitude of perspectives. What a rich experience and great way to reinforce advances made in industry.

Okay, so this trip has a different kind of appeal than a fried-chicken tour, but I think I’d like it more.

This group of tourists is certain to encounter PIG® Absorbents and other PIG® products along the way (though they may not notice them). For that matter, if their bus takes I-99 between the first two stops (Scranton and Pittsburgh), they’ll pass within a few miles of New Pig headquarters.

I’m going to email the organizer offering some New Pig swag to everyone on the tour just because I think this imaginative trip will go a long way toward helping them keep people in industry safe, healthy and productive. Those people are our customers, so we have the same goal.

Kudos to the Historical Perspectives Tour! Here’s a sow-lute from One Pork Avenue as you roll by!

Image © alma_sacra – Fotolia.com

Time for a quick quiz!

Which of the following subjects you to the loudest noise?

1. Electric drill
2. Tractor cab
3. A pig squealing just before lunch

You guessed it—the pig. Decibel ratings from this article are listed at the end of this post.

This doesn’t apply to me, mind you. I’ve acclimated myself to my workplace. That’s just the kind of swine I am.

But if you’re wheeling chow from one regular ol’ barnyard pig to another—for hog’s sake, use hearing protection!

Earplugs
Earmuffs
Noise Blankets

Image © Martina Berg – Fotolia.com

1. 87
2. 90
3. 100+

Here’s a video that serves as an illustration for my earlier post about accidents in academic and industrial labs. This looks like it takes place in the former type of lab, and it shows how quickly things can go south.

Watch in the final few second for the … um … fabrication in response to a question about a particular piece of safety gear. This comes from the person who was wearing something else.

There’s also a de-fabrication (you’ll see what I mean at the 1:25 mark) related to another piece of safety gear. It’s a reminder that fire-retardant (which this item almost certainly is) isn’t the same as fireproof.

LANGUAGE WARNING! SET YOUR AUDIO ACCORDINGLY!

LANGUAGE WARNING! PLAY AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Don’t try this activity in your home lab unless you’re properly trained and equipped with everything you need, including personal protective equipment such as the following:

Heat-Resistant Gloves
Safety Goggles
Faceshields
Eyewash Stations and Showers

Somebody get busy on a steel guitar so we can all sing:

Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be
technicians in an academic lab

That went through my head after I read this article claiming that accidents and injuries happen in academic labs hundreds of times more than in industrial labs. It says that safety regulations often don’t apply to student workers in academic labs, that academic lab chiefs are held less accountable for accidents, and that improvement will come only if it’s tied to research funding.

Eye-opening. I’d want to have this information if I were a student lab worker or had a child working in a college lab.

Image © elemental imaging – Fotolia.com

I also found healthy discussion about that article, some dissenting with it, at this blog post. The blogger recalls working in an industrial lab with intense safety procedures, yet “we still had explosions, due to varying amounts of cluelessness, stupidity, and just plain bad luck.”

One comment: “Very true … no matter how many times you remind people of appropriate safety measures, some fraction choose to ignore it.”

Another commenter mentions a professor who illustrated the need for safety by giving each new student lab worker instructions that would CAUSE a explosion (presumably benign), because it: “made the students treat all their compounds, regardless of scale, with the utmost care and respect, including personal safety.”

Ya gotta love voices of experience and practice. It would be great to hear from scientists and other lab workers who use PIG® HAZ-MAT Absorbents in laboratories:

PIG® HAZ-MAT Mat Pads & Rolls
PIG® HAZ-MAT Socks, Dikes, Pillows, & Loose
PIG® Acid Encapsulating/Neutralizing Mat Pads & Rolls

Give us a comment on them. Tell us how they do or do not come into play in your work. Give practical user tips. You might save someone time or money or even prevent an injury.

File this one under ”I have no idea if this story is true or not,” but it’s memorable either way and makes a good safety point.

The Cliffs Notes version goes like so: A man purchases a taser measuring about 5″ long for his wife and before he gives it to her, he decides he should test it to ensure that it works. He eyes up the cat, but his better judgment kicks in. Who else could he test it on? Himself, of course! He rationalizes that it’s only two AAA batteries powering the thing and aims.

He describes what follows: “I’m pretty sure Jesse Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over and over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal position, with tears in my eyes, soaking wet with my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs.”

The aftermath also includes the recliner he was sitting in being thrown about eight feet from its original position, a cloud of burnt-hair smoke hovering above him, and his cat hanging on a picture frame attempting to stay out of the melee.

Image © Stephen Coburn – Fotolia.com

Again, I do not know if this is true. I have seen videos of people getting tased, and it looks pretty insane. The reason for posting this is to show that there are instructions for a reason. Read them and follow them.

Learning safety through education is a lot easier than learning safety through bad experiences.

Researchers are making progress in mimicking the super-strong adhesives produced by snails and slugs.

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Here’s an alternative to power-washing for cleaning concrete. Very interesting and apparently green.

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This new company turns mushroom roots into foam-based material for packaging, insulation and more.

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Trench collapses just as worker exits at the urging of OSHA inspector.

Those of you with loading docks might be interested in the new Rite-Vu™ Light Communication System from Rite-Hite. It’s designed to help prevent collisions between forklifts and/or pedestrians as well as trailer separation accidents. The key is lights that show whether a forklift is inside a trailer and whether the trailer is secured to the dock.

Right-Vu™ System

New Pig’s own loading dock expert, Kevin Rhine, showed me that our safety system includes Dok-Lok Vehicle Restraints, also from Rite-Hite. The restraint latches onto a trailer to keep it from separating from the dock during loading or unloading, and the system includes lights that show when the restraint is engaged.

Dok-Lok lighting panel in use at New Pig

At all New Pig loading docks, even those without a Dok-Lok System, a driver will apply a Glad Hand Lockout to the brake line of a docked trailer, or a Club Lockout to the steering wheel of a docked box truck, so there’s no unexpected pulling away from the dock.

Glad Hand Lockout in use at New Pig

Club Lockout stored at New Pig loading dock

We don’t sell the items shown above, but we do sell wheel chocks and these loading dock accessories.

Check out this story about a forgotten refrigerator and the mayhem it creates.

Twenty-eight people were sickened and seven taken to the hospital! People are vomiting all over the place, 325 people evacuated from the building and the hazmat team is called in!

The story is ridiculous, right? But at the same time, the ridiculous can prompt an OSHA inspection. OSHA 1904.39 states “Within eight (8) hours after the death of any employee from a work-related incident or the in-patient hospitalization of three or more employees as a result of a work-related incident, you must orally report the fatality/multiple hospitalization by telephone or in person to… OSHA”

I don’t know if these employees were hospitalized, but they may have been. If so, you can be almost certain that an OSHA inspector will be knocking on the door.

Don’t let a cleaning situation turn into an inspection with potential fines. Keep your employees safe. Know your facility and know the chemicals you have on hand. This will save everybody a lot of trouble … as well as from losing their lunch.

Image © Chastity – Fotolia.com

A compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), that leading symbol of environmental awareness, has environmental and health issues of its own that may surprise you. Balanced against the potential energy and cost savings are potential dangers to people, animals and plants during the manufacturing, use and disposal of CFLs. You can make up your own mind about using them at home or at work; it’s just good to have the information you need to make an informed decision.

Image  © Petr Kratochvil – Fotolia.com

A closer look at energy and cost savings
CFLs are often known as energy saving lights because a CFL generally uses less power and has a longer rated life than incandescent lamps. Typically, the packaging for a CFL will say that the lamp can save over US $30 in electricity costs over its lifetime compared to the lifetime of an incandescent bulb.

However, a CFL may last no longer than an incandescent bulb if it’s used for only a few minutes at a time. The US Energy Star program advises leaving a CFL on for at least 15 minutes at a time. In that context, your higher-priced CFL may save you nothing when used for a trip to the kitchen for a midnight snack or to the bathroom or in many other on-and-off situations.

A closer look at environmental benefits
Not only are CFLs engineered to use less power than incandescent lamps, but because they also run cooler, they may also cut air conditioning power use. Assuming that it draws electricity derived from burning fossil fuels, a CFL used to its maximum life may save 2,000 times its own weight in greenhouse gases.

In areas powered by coal, CFLs may also reduce some mercury emissions (because coal emissions include mercury). However, mercury is at the core of environmental and health damage that CFLs may cause …

A closer look at mercury factors
Like all fluorescent lamps, CFLs contain mercury vapor that glows when electrified. Mercury is highly toxic. An accumulation in the body can cause nerve, lung and kidney damage and especially threatens unborn babies and young children.  And unfortunately, you can’t see, smell or taste mercury vapors—so it’s hard to know whether you’ve been exposed.

Some quick history: Ancient Roman and Greek cultures knew about the dangers of mercury. Prisoners were often made to work in mercury mines to spare the health of the general population. This was actually a death sentence worse than beheading or stoning because it was slower and more painful. And remember the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland? Well, he was “mad” because hatters commonly used mercury to shape the felt in felt hats. The overexposure to mercury vapors caused madness.

Having that information helps underline tragic news reported this week in the London Times that the manufacturing of CFLs has led to hundreds of citizens of China being poisoned by mercury. The article says that inadequate safety and environmental controls in some mines and factories not only sicken people and animals, but also stunt crops.

Mercury vapor is released any time a CFL or any fluorescent light is broken. You’ll find cleanup advice at this EPA page, starting with the instruction to open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes. The EPA page also has information for what to do in case liquid mercury spills. Keep our Mercury Spill Control Kits in mind. The MerconKit™ product below features excellent vapor control as well.

Frankly, the EPA is vague about CFL disposal. The advice is to look for options locally, but there are sometimes none to be found. I know this firsthand: I’ve got a half a dozen CFLs in a box in my garage waiting for a good disposal option. This drives me nuts, especially because some countries are going to make CFLs mandatory as soon as next year, so a lot more people will run into the same situation OR, not knowing any better or not caring, will just toss spent or broken CFLs into the regular trash. Not only does this increase their risk of exposure to mercury vapor, it also sets up a prime scenario for water and other resources to be contaminated!

The closest “safe and responsible” disposal option I’ve found (starting here) is the Home Depot or IKEA in Pittsburgh—about a two-hour drive from my hometown.  So I’ve spent twice the money to buy this bulb, and will have to drive 120 miles to get rid of it?  Now I’m creating excess air emissions and wasting fossil fuels. Have legislators really thought this through?

Thankfully, it’s often easier for companies who use recycling services. New Pig is diligent about recycling CFLs, fluorescent tube lamps, HID bulbs and as many other materials as we can.  We can only hope that more convenient options will become available for the general public as well.

Hope you found all of this this en-light-ening …

U.S. human cases of H1N1 Flu infection
(As of May 4, 2009, 11:00 AM ET)

Number of laboratory-confirmed cases:

36 states
279 cases
1 death

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Latest update from CDC on Twitter
Transcript and Audio file of today’s CDC Press Conference on H1N1 Flu: http://is.gd/wKww Please RT. #swineflu

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One of 28 FAQs at H1N1 Flu and You

Is there a risk from drinking water?
Tap water that has been treated by conventional disinfection processes does not likely pose a risk for transmission of influenza viruses. Current drinking water treatment regulations provide a high degree of protection from viruses. No research has been completed on the susceptibility of the novel H1N1 flu virus to conventional drinking water treatment processes. However, recent studies have demonstrated that free chlorine levels typically used in drinking water treatment are adequate to inactivate highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza. It is likely that other influenza viruses such as novel H1N1 would also be similarly inactivated by chlorination. To date, there have been no documented human cases of influenza caused by exposure to influenza-contaminated drinking water.

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H1N1 Flu page from CDC

Flu world map from USA Today