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Shop Safety, from Head to Toe.Jun 15 '06 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Whether you are working on a skyscraper, making a doghouse in your basement or cleaning your oven, your personal safety can be greatly improved by how you dress.
Workshops and work sites are unsafe places. No matter how careful you are, bad stuff happens. Sometimes it is your fault, sometimes it is not your mistake, and sometimes there is no one to blame. Whether you are working on a skyscraper, making a doghouse in your basement or cleaning your oven, your personal safety can be greatly improved by how you dress. 1 - Wear a hat: Any time there is more then one story involved, wear a hard hat. These are surprisingly inexpensive, and cost a lot less than a night in the hospital. If there are scaffolds and ladders in your vicinity, put one on. They do a decent job of protecting your head if you fall, and a much better job of protecting your head if something falls on you. Being the most careful worker in the universe does you no good if the village buffoon knocks a monkey wrench off a scaffold. Working trimming trees requires a hard hat too. If you are painting, wear a painter's cap. Not only does it keep paint out of your hair, the peak helps protect your eyes from splashes. If you are gardening or doing other outdoor work, wear a broad brimmed hat. I wear an old straw hat that used to belong to my wife. I probably look really silly. So what? The air passes through it keeping my head cool, while the broad brim protects my nose, ears and neck from direct sunlight. Men have a much higher incidence than women of skin cancer on the backs of their necks and on ear lobes, primarily because they wear baseball caps rather than brimmed hats when doing yard work. When doing anything else, wear at least a baseball cap. If nothing else, it will keep sawdust and other bad stuff out of your hair. The peak will usually hit something before your head does, warning you that you are about to have a collision. When you do manage to walk into a 2x4 or a misplaced clamp, it hurts a lot less through a cap. A baseball cap is also a good way to keep long hair back away from your tools. 2 - Wear Glasses: Your eyes are probably your most vulnerable and most important sense organs. Protect them. There is no job, no matter how small and seemingly insignificant, that is not safer wearing glasses. For most purposes, prescription glasses or sunglasses are fine. However, for some jobs more protection may be required. Store bought safety glasses have side protectors that can stop chips coming in at an angle. If you really need that prescription, plastic goggles can fit over your normal glasses. For really messy jobs like using a lathe or router, a full face mask is available, which can be worn either on its own or over normal glasses. Don't forget your glasses when painting or using glues. Most paints and glues really, really hurt when they go in your eye. That goes double for hot melt glue -- crafters take note. Gardening is not exempt. Lawnmowers, trimmers and blowers do a great job of sending up dust and small rocks. Even cleaning qualifies. Chlorine bleach and white vinegar are no fun in the eyes, and it is easy to misdirect an aerosol. Don't even mention oven cleaner and/or drain cleaner -- I don't want to even think about the consequences of messing up with those. Oh. And don't be a total moron. When you weld, wear the proper eye protection. Welding by "Braille" as they call it on certain TV shows isn't macho or professional, it is just stupid. 3 - Wear Ear Protection: Ear protection is probably the most overlooked safety precaution. The problem is that ear damage is usually slow and subtle. You can ignore it for many years before you start to notice hearing loss. Even then, it is just "genetic" and people do not associate it with unsafe behavior. While there is obviously a genetic component, you can certainly delay the onset and reduce the severity of any late-life hearing problems by protecting your ears when you work. Virtually every power tool you own is loud enough to cause hearing loss. When you start up a joiner, planer or router, the deafening noise makes that quite obvious. However, even relatively quiet tools like a jig-saw or corded drill are too loud. In fact, the only "safe" tool I regularly use is a battery operated drill-driver. While a nail gun may not seem that bad due to the short intermittent noise, that type of percussive, sudden onset noise is the most damaging kind. Don’t forget your hand tools. Hammering, particularly in a confined space, is extremely loud. Garden tools are not exempt. Gas-powered trimmers, leaf blowers, chain saws and even the lowly lawn mower are all loud enough to damage ears. Electric garden tools are much quieter, but you should still take precautions. If you don't believe me look in your landscaper's truck. I bet he has a set of earmuffs. Ear protection comes in two flavors, earmuffs like old-style headphones, and ear buds that are worn in the ear. Which you wear is personal preference. They both work very well to protect your ears from loud noises. Top quality hearing aids can run $1000 each, and never work that well. Ear muffs cost about $8 and ear buds are cheaper still. 4 - Wear a Dust Mask: Breathing dust is bad, okay! Any kind of dust will adversely affect your lungs, causing problems like lung cancer and emphysema. Just about anything can cause dust. Using a power saw, sander or router is rather obvious, since your clothes are covered in sawdust 1/2" thick. Mixing cement is another good contender, since cement is a very fine powder and gets everywhere. Fiberglass insulation is another winner. Tiny pieces of glass are just what you want to breathe -- NOT. Demolition is one of the dustiest jobs around. There is nothing quite like tearing down old sheet board and plaster. Sanding drywall mud is another wonderful source of super fine powder. Redecorating can be fun, but are you sure that paint you are sanding does not contain lead? If in doubt, contact a professional. Dealing with lead paint is subject to a host of Federal and State laws, and is way beyond the scope of this article. However, even an activity as benign as sweeping can be dangerous if not deadly. Using a vacuum cleaner can be as bad as sweeping if you do not have a HEPA Filter on the vacuum cleaner. Both can kick up harmful dust. Worse still, the dust may contain diseases. Mouse droppings contain the Hanta Virus which you catch by breathing the dust, and it is fatal to humans about 90 percent of the time. It is actually has a higher kill rate than Black Death and Ebola and it is common in the south-western USA. Bat droppings contain Rabies. Nuff said. You notice the trend here... If you do have to clean up a rodent infested area, give everything a good dousing in 10-percent chlorine bleach solution first, and don't forget your glasses and mask while you are spraying the bleach. Gardening? One word - leaf dust. Using a blower is rather obvious, but a lawn mower can kick up major dust mulching dry leaves. Regular readers may remember me writing about a 10-week long headache in an earlier review. I stupidly triggered that headache by running my lawnmower over 6" deep super-dry leaves one fall after a long drought. By the time I realized how much dust I was creating, the damage was done. I had 10 wonderful weeks to regret not wearing a mask, and God only knows what long-term harm I did to my lungs. Even raking and bagging can be a problem if the leaves are really dry. Of course, liquid mists can be worse than dust. Do you really want to breathe that paint or pesticide? Using a power sprayer is obvious. However, an aerosol can be just as bad, especially in a confined space or above your head. A power washer is another source of super fine mist. And don't forget, some construction chemicals give off harmful vapors too, so read the can. Common, cheap paper masks will handle most of your problems. They come in boxes of fifty at most hardware stores and mega-stores. However, they are only effective against dust. Nice little rubber gasmasks are a lot more comfortable and effective. They usually come with exchangeable cartridges that offer different types of protection: one cartridge for dust, one for mists, and one for harmful vapors. Read the label of the product you are using, and make sure you have the right type of cartridge installed. 5 - Wear Overalls. It's a hot sunny summer day in NJ. T-shirt, shorts and sandals are the only sensible attire. However, as often as not, you will find me working in overalls. Why? Because wearing less would be unsafe. No, I am not going to dress up to mow the lawn, or to weed my flowerpots. I am not going to overdress to rewire an electrical outlet, change a light bulb, or clean up the basement. However, if any serious work is involved, I am dressed for it. First off, you need to dress in clothes you don't care about. Jumping back to avoid getting paint on your clothes is not such a good idea when you are on a ladder. For a lot of light work, it is sufficient to simply wear old comfortable clothing. Most household paint will do no harm to your skin. However, for a lot of tasks, wearing clothes that cover your arms, legs and body is a good idea. Any real project involving wood, nails, wire, concrete and so on, is going to have plenty of jagged edges and pointy bits. Sawdust on hot sweaty days causes rashes and eczema. Cement dust is worse. I also have light skin, so prolonged exposure to sunlight is not such a great idea. Flying wood chips hurt. So do small stones and those bright sparky bits from the arc welder. Since I know I will have hot days to contend with, I like to wear painter's pants, complete with a bib. I bought mine at Sears. The heavy white denim helps me stay cool while protecting my skin from sun and sharp objects. The over the shoulder straps keep my pants up, without needing a tight sweaty uncomfortable belt. The bib pockets are great for markers and small tools, and the lower pockets hold rulers, squares, tape measures and drill bits. It even has tool loops for hammers and drills. If I am doing light work indoors or in heavy shade, I may just wear a white T-shirt. For more serious work or prolonged sunshine, I wear a long-sleeved shirt. I bought light-tan Dickies cotton work shirts, also at Sears. They protect my arms while being relatively cool. In cold weather I wear long-sleeved sweat suit tops instead. In between, I wear plaid shirts, like my hero, Norm. I wear this outfit for heavy gardening too, where I have sun, poison ivy, nettles, prickly bushes and bitey bugs to contend with. Exposed sweaty skin is a magnet to mosquitoes, which in NJ are about the size of a sparrow. West Nile Virus and Lyme disease are concerns here too. And am I hotter than I want to be? Yes, of course I am, but I try to work in the early AM and avoid the heat of the day. Drinking a lot of fluids helps too, and no, I do not mean beer. 6 - Wear Gloves: For me, gloves come in five main types. Disposable light rubber, latex or clear plastic gloves are for short term use working with construction chemicals that I do not want touching my skin. Contact cement, epoxy resins, cement mixes, plastic wood... the list is endless. I don't usually use them for acrylic paint, but it is certainly not a bad idea. Keeping engine oil off your hands is good too, so I keep a few sets in the car for emergencies. Heavy multi-use rubber gloves are for less offensive chemicals that can be easily washed off the gloves. 10-percent bleach solution, white vinegar, harsh detergents, wallpaper glue and so on. I also use these gloves when potting plants and handling soil. Light-cloth work gloves are good to protect your hands from abrasion, chafing and splinters. Loading wood, handling bricks or stones and plywood or drywall sheets all qualify. I often wear then when using hand tools like an axe, hammer or garden spade for an extended period. It sure beats having blisters. Heavy work gloves, either totally leather or canvas-backed with a thick leather front, are for heavy work where sharp objects are expected: cleaning up broken glass, moving woodpiles, working with wire, or trimming thorn bushes and roses are all good candidates. Rule of thumb -- if you can feel it through the light glove, put on a heavier one. Heavy vinyl gardening gloves that go half way up my arms have one special use for me, clearing poison ivy. Nuff said. I don't do much welding, but obviously special gloves are required for that. Kitchen mitts come in handy too, when handling hot stuff. 7 - Wear boots: Never work in sandals, flip-flops or any open toed shoe. I don't have any stats, but I bet most home owners regularly do home improvement work in old sneakers. I know that I did. Have a look at that construction site down the road. Do you see that young guy, the one laying bricks or nailing studs wearing just denim shorts, his muscled body tanned from the sun. Look at his feet. Ladies, focus please. What do you see? Heavy work boots. Yes, even young Adonis, who is ignoring just about every safety precaution, is wearing boots. That is because the two most common accidents on a work site are standing on a nail, and dropping something on your foot. Twisting an ankle on broken ground is right up there too. (Chances are he is wearing a hard hat and work gloves. Did you notice?) You need to head down to the store. At K-Mart, for less than $40 you can buy a pair of work boots with a nail resistant sole and a hard plastic or steel toe cap which lace up over your ankles. You will thank me the first time you knock a 2x4 off your saw table and it bounces harmlessly off your boot. You don't even feel it. Trust me. I know. Take a thick pair of winter socks to the store with you to make sure you get boots with enough room. In winter, you will need the socks. In summer, the extra air will help keep your feet cool. 8 - What's the cost? For less than $150 you can buy everything on this list, hard hat, glasses, earmuffs, rubber mask, overalls, gloves and boots. If you buy only what you need for a particular job, it will cost much less. Will this keep you safe? No, it won't. Accidents happen. That's the point. A wrench may never fall on your head, but if it does, wouldn't it be nice to be wearing a hard hat. The other stuff you will use for sure. Chips will hit your safety glasses. You will work in noisy or dusty environments. You will get thorns and splinters if you don't wear gloves. Overalls will absorb damage that would have cost you skin. Everyone drops something on their foot, sooner or later. Sometimes you avoid an Owie. Sometimes you avoid serious injury or death. Either way, you’re a winner. There is only one thing that is sure. Safety equipment will only help if you wear it. The glasses on your workbench do not protect your eyes. The earmuffs on the shelf will not save your hearing. Neither the rubber mask nor the 40+ paper masks in my basement saved me from leaf dust the day my brain switched off. Chalk one up in the dumb-things-I-won't-do-again category. Duh! Always dress properly. Give yourself a chance. Make safety a habit. Start today. * * *  |
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