Archive for category: Safety Resources

When cleaning an area with deer mice or a suspected rodent infestation, wear your respirator. Make sure you have a H.E.P.A filter on it. You also should be wearing rubber gloves. Of course long sleeves and pants are a given… Right? Next open up the sea can, shed or whatever building you are entering and let it air out for a few hours. Every employer will have a specific procedure for you to follow so make sure you are familiar with it. A general safe practice according to the CDC is to make a bleach solution of 1 part bleach to 10 parts water. Use this to clean everything. Do not sweep, use your solution and mop. If you have any trapped mice or there are any dead ones, use your bleach solution to thoroughly soak it, then use multiple garbage bags and throw it away. Yes this is completely disgusting but it beats getting hantavirus. When you are all done throw everything away and wash up.

WorksafeBC has a great resource titled “Hantavirus: Exposure Control Program for Employers and Workers.”. It includes information on worker and employer responsibilities, rodent control, respiratory protection and sample work procedures.

Like I said, the chance of contracting the hantavirus is small but know the symptoms just in case. The symptoms are very close to flu symptoms, such as dizziness, aches, fever, headaches, tiredness, stomach and back pain, vomiting, coughing shortness of breath and difficulty breathing. If you have been in contact with rodents or in an area where deer mice could have been, get yourself to the hospital as soon as possible and inform medical professionals of your contact with deer mice. The chances of getting hantavirus are extremely low but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

What kid doesn’t love Halloween? Costumes, decorations and free candy… So much free candy! Let’s do our best to keep Halloween fun for everyone by following a few simple rules.

When picking a costume for your child, try to steer clear of masks.  If they have to wear a mask, make sure they can see clearly out of it. Also check for tripping hazards; make sure the costume isn’t too long. Before leaving the house make sure that your children have either reflective tape on their costume or they’re carrying a glow stick or a flashlight. This will help motorists spot them. It’s estimated that children are twice as likely to get injured by a motor vehicle on Halloween, so make sure they’re visible to motorists. Be clear that they need to stay out of the streets and only cross at crosswalks. Always make eye contact with motorists before beginning to cross. As for motorists, be alert! Be especially alert in a suburban area. You should never be driving distracted, so I know you won’t be on your phone, right? Slow down and be super cautious.

A parent should be going with younger children.  If your children are older and are going on their own, make sure you have a planned-out route where they’re trick-or-treating, a charged cell phone, and a time to be home. While trick-or-treating, make sure to only go to homes with the porch light on. Ensure that your children know that they should never, under any circumstances enter the home of a stranger. And snacking is a no-no. All candy and treats need to be inspected by a trusted adult (this trusted adult will make sure you’re candy is super safe and probably confiscate all your Reese’s #parenthack) Send your monsters out with a little bag of candy from home they can munch on, hopefully this will deter them from sampling their Halloween loot.

Halloween is supposed to be scary, as in ghouls and ghosts…… Not pedestrian accidents and tainted candy. Make sure to play it safe this year and follow these rules.

I hear so many grumblings about safety. How it takes too long to do it the safe way… How it’s mostly so big companies can save on insurance… How it’s people that have no idea how to do your job, telling you how to do your job. How you’ve been doing it your way for 25 years. I can’t help but think would you hear these complaints in a different industry? Like maybe a live line worker? Do you think a worker being flown in by helicopter wearing a Faraday suit to climb onto live power wires, complains about safety? Or maybe this worker skips steps sometimes… Maybe he/she doesn’t want to wear the suit one day because it’s too hot out or their gloves make it to hard to work with smaller tools so they takes them off now and then. Of course not, they would die! Do you think they sit around the lunch trailer and complain about safety? I guarantee they don’t. Safety is how they make it home everyday. We could all use a bit more of their mentality. If you do a quick Google search of the most dangerous jobs in the world, the trades come up. So why are we still acting like we don’t need safety? Who cares if it takes longer to do it safely… I’m pretty sure you’re paid by the hour. So what if we have meetings and paperwork to bring down a companies insurance. Their insurance only comes down with zero fatalities and injuries, so we are still coming out on top. We aren’t on site knitting sweaters… We work in a dangerous environment and need to not only start following safety by the book, but start embracing it.

Guards… They are on everything. Grinders, band saws, lathes you name it… It probably has some sort of guard. Some workers really think guards are put in place to slow us down. They think removing these guards is totally acceptable… And I guess it is, if you’re willing to lose a finger or an arm or your life (actually, even if for some reason you’re willing to take that gamble… It’s still not acceptable). Contrary to these beliefs, guards are 100% put in place to protect us. They should never be removed or altered in anyway. These guards are protecting us from moving parts that can pull in our hair, clothing and digits and cause serious injuries or even death. Some of this machinery is meant to cut or grind metal, what chance do you think your skin and bones have up against that? Guards need to stay put unless you are authorized to remove them. Otherwise, hands off. This goes for cleaning machinery or grinding in a tight spot. I know you may think “if I just take it off for a second, I can finish the job”. But that could be the last second of your life. Guards are in place for your safety, why would you ever want to alter that.

I sat down for dinner with my family at a local restaurant. It’s Friday, we are all done work for the week, time to relax, YAY! Then our son starts screaming “TRACTOR, TRACTOR”, we look out the window and see a man spotting a worker driving an EWP down the road (I know that’s not a tractor but our son is 2, don’t worry, he’ll know what an EWP is😉). I notice the spotter is in plain clothes and think he should be wearing a high res vest, maybe his company has very lax rules. We continue with our dinner but this is now bothering me. I take our son for a walk in the restaurant and we spot the worker on the lift. That’s when the above picture was taken. What do you notice? This man is about 2 stories up and not tied off! In plain sight! I couldn’t believe it. I snapped the picture and then went to drop my son off with my spouse but by the time I came back the worker already had the lift on the ground for the night and driving away in his pickup. Was I going to talk to him? You bet your bottom dollar I was, it’s my due diligence. I looked for a company name or sticker to call but there was nothing. However his lift is still there, I will track him down. Now I don’t want to get the worker in trouble, that is definitely not my end game here. But could you imagine eating dinner and a worker falls 2 stories right in front of you and you could have prevented it? I’m sure he was just pulling the lift in for the night and thought he didn’t need to tie off. But that’s just it… If it’s not enough to keep yourself alive, just know us safety people are always watching, even when we are off duty. So always take the time and do it safely.