10 Most Dangerous Jobs of 2018: Bacon Edition: Safety Tales Podcast Episode 21

Announcer:

Dave & Bacon's Safety Tales, the only industrial safety podcast that brings you common sense advice on job site safety, standards, regulations, and industry best practices without putting you to sleep.

Fred:

All right, welcome to Dave & Bacon's Safety Tales. Fred Radunzel and Dave White here with Quad City Safety. We're doing it again.

Dave:

Again, again. 

Fred:

This one's coming to you live from Des Moines, Iowa. We came up here, we're at Prairie Meadows Casino recording live in a hotel room, so it's very, very glamorous. They run, they do some horse racing here and some other things. It's a little chilly.

Dave:

Not for another week.

Fred:

That's when it's supposed to start?

Dave:

Yeah. Because I like horse racing, obviously.

Fred:

You do? Oh yeah, from Kentucky. Makes sense.

Dave:

So it's kind of...

Fred:

Have you been here before to watch horse racing?

Dave:

No. Well I think it's probably simulcast. 

Fred:

No, they have live. There's a track right out here.

Dave:

Oh, really?

Fred:

Yeah.

Dave:

I guess I knew that. 

Fred:

Yeah, there's a track out here. They do greyhounds.

Dave:

Greyhounds. Okay.

Fred:

They do that. They do horse racing though too. I think it's Friday or Saturday nights. Yeah, so you'll have to check it out sometime. You didn't realize you were that close, did you?

Dave:

No I guess I didn't.

Fred:

Yep. We are, we believe, the only dedicated safety podcast that gives you the advice without going over standards and numbers and all the boring stuff. We try to keep it interesting.

Dave:

The stuff that makes you get glossy eyed and tired.

Fred:

Yep. So safety doesn't have to be boring, so if we can help make it a little less mind numbing, we can probably help save a few lives out there hopefully.

Dave:

Can I get an amen?

Fred:

Can you get an amen? Amen!

Dave:

There you go.

Fred:

Reach out to us on all of our social media platforms. You can reach out via email. Dave likes to give out the fax number so you can reach out to us via fax. It's on our website.

Dave:

I would love to have a fax come in. 563-445-2171.

Fred:

So if a fax comes in you'll pull $5 out of your wallet, return to sender. Send them five bucks cash.

Dave:

Yeah absolutely.

Fred:

Someone sends us a fax saying, "Hey, you told me to fax you on the podcast."

Dave:

"I'm faxing my question on it." It would just be funny to me to sit there and go in my lifetime, I have watched all this stuff go to where we're putting this podcast out into the cloud, which I still, every time they go to cloud I wonder how old people, can you imagine just not getting computers and then not going, "Well the cloud is just basically a server somewhere."

Fred:

You would get a crispy five dollar bill in a birthday card like it's coming from your grandma.

Dave:

Yeah. Okay.

Fred:

Back when you were nine years old and you got a five dollar bill in a Mickey Mouse birthday card? It's coming, so go ahead and fax us that question. 563...

Dave:

445.

Fred:

... 445-2171. Fax it.

Dave:

Yup. Fax it.

Fred:

So, this week we thought we'd talk about an article that EHSToday.com did, they released on their website, listing the ten most dangerous jobs of 2018. It looks like they used fatality rates as a metric, so I'm sure it's not an exact science, but it'll give us some good talking points to kind of go through. I thought we'd kinda-

Dave:

So we'll share some of those numbers when you're looking at it, if there were 100,000 people doing that job, how many people die?

Fred:

Right.

Dave:

So, what's the rate for...

Fred:

How about we go to ground maintenance workers, cause that's the first on the list, and that's what's in front of my face. 17.4.

Dave:

So out of 100,000 people, if you had ground maintenance workers all standing around, and they were the size of a city that was 100,000 people.

Fred:

Right, so 217 total fatalities. In scale, there's probably however many, hundreds of thousands of people who do that job.

Dave:

Correct.

Fred:

So kind of what I thought we'd do was go over the list, talk a little bit about some known hazards of each job, and then a single tip or solution that we can come with to hopefully make that person's job a little bit safer. So, we're gonna try. We might not even know all of 'em, so we haven't really went over the list or discussed it before this, but let's roll.

So, grounds maintenance workers, so I'm assuming you're gonna talk about guys cutting the grass, guys doing the weed whacking, could be working around ponds or doing some of that stuff.

Dave:

I would imagine a lot of that is probably because, you hear about it every year, somebody gets on a tractor, rolls the tractor over and gets squished.

Fred:

Yeah.

Dave:

So, I bet, roll overs are probably something. And that's one of them where you can't, really, if you had a seat belt or roll cage that might be fun to roll through it.

Fred:

Yeah, I can see trimming, maybe doing some trimming, like the limb could hit you, or something like that, a head injury. Falling.

Dave:

Yeah I would imagine arborists, people that trim trees and everything, I imagine that one probably has as wide a range of different hazards as there can be. I mean, in the ground maintenance, you always hear somebody in the pool chemical room that bites the dust by getting a little chlorine in the system. It could be, that one's one that's pretty wide open, so I could probably around pesticides or chemicals that they don't know, and they could, I don't know, it could be lockout issues ordered. There's energy sources that they, you remember the, "Don't stand on the green box," but the first thing you always did when you were a kid in the yard was get up on the green box and-

Fred:

What's in that box?

Dave:

Nobody ever knew. Why is it clumpy?

Fred:

How come if I sit on it I had to start stinging a little bit? My core. [crosstalk 00:06:32] just say clear; sit on it and say clear.

Dave:

Well yeah. Think about the reason that there's the A1-1 folks, is because finally, after time, after time, somebody gets out there with some postal diggers and hits a hot pressure propane line, blows the whole damn neighborhood up. So, that one I can see that you'd really have to day by day, you'd really be subjected to a lot different views depending on if you're this guy-

Fred:

So what do you think about one kind of temp? That would be thing to look at for people that are doing that job. Especially if we're talking vehicle safety, so that's really something to look at if we're talking rollovers. We're talking pesticides it's gonna be respiratory care.

Dave:

Well I think that one-I don't know man, it could be a lot of different things. Probably the smartest thing there is backup, take ten or fifteen seconds, and look at what you're doing.

Fred:

Right. [crosstalk 00:07:30] side assessment. As you're doing each job-

Dave:

We always say that around constructions, the job site today is not the job site tomorrow.

Fred:

Right.

Dave:

So obviously if you're mowing, all of a sudden, "Wait a second, there's a hill here, so how am I gonna tack this hill?" Instead of all of a sudden, instead of going up to down, you're on the side grade, and all of a sudden you roll the damn thing over on you, thinking that ten seconds to really evaluate might have been the one thing that kept you coming home for dinner.

Fred:

Fair enough.

So number nine was supervisors of construction workers. So we talked a lot about the actual construction worker themselves being in danger; but, when it comes to fatalities, supervisors-

Dave:

That was the one that I kinda looked at you and I went, "What?" That's actually on the root? What's the number?

Fred:

134 fatalities, 18.0 [crosstalk 00:08:21]

Dave:

18 people per 100,000. Again, depends on what they're doing.

Fred:

Its gotta be that that persons just not prepared, they're not doing the work of the actual worker, and they have to just come to the job site not prepared for the hazards. Are not aware of the hazards.

Dave:

Let's say safety supervisor, it says just for basically, I read that as like a foreman. But it's probably, I would say that part of that factor of death is a guy walks out there, goes, "Well goddamn, if you're not gonna do it, get out of my way and let me, BOOM."

Fred:

Yeah, could be that, could be walking into a confined space to look at something, and you're not protected[crosstalk 00:09:12]. So that persons just gotta be-have awareness. Awareness that his sites that he's going on, there's a reason that all of his workers that work under him are wearing all of the safety equipment, and he's subject to the same rules, even if he just shows up there to talk to somebody.

Dave:

Review of a JHA or whatever, hazard analysis before you, you're gonna participate and stuff. Because to your point, supervisors use-they can be somebody that doesn't really know, maybe they're not-

Fred:

They can be at the computer most of the day, or on the phone.

Dave:

So, also, he comes stomping out of there, he doesn't realize what's changed, or what's new, or what's different.

Fred:

Alright, so, number eight, we got farmers, ranchers, and agricultural managers, is what they're listed in. I'm gonna defer on this one.

Dave:

Now farmers and ranchers, we actually-

Fred:

260 fatalities, 23 by the way, 23.

Dave:

Well when you're talking farmers and ranchers, I mean, lets see here, it seems like you have somebody dies in a grain bin every year. Right in Quad Cities couple years ago, we had two kids under the age of 18 that were basically died and engulfed in it. They were in a grain bin and, I mean, that's basically quicksand, you go under, and if they can't pop a hole in that thing, get it to dump all the corn out all over the place, you're gonna[inaudible 00:10:47] you're not gonna have any oxygen. You're gonna die.

It could be, probably some of the worst stories I've ever heard is, you don't think that the word "confine space" would come up in agriculture. But, it's actually, it's big for two places, now they have these large hog confinements, so in the Midwest you'll be driving past this barn, and it smells horrible, but there's hundreds of hundreds to thousands pigs in the one little barn. And when they crap, basically, it goes down to a holding tank that later they'll empty. But, you have the fact that there's methane, so you have a potential explosion. One, but two, is you got organic matter that's decomposing. So you create a whole other hazard there. And we've actually, we've had some, I think we've had a couple customers, one specifically that lost a family member in a hog confinement. Somebody went into that part and didn't make it out.

Fred:

Is that something in that fall protection can be-so if they're gonna fall in-

Dave:

Well, engulfment.

Fred:

Engulfment. So having fall protection, I'm just saying, trying to think of something that would be something to take a look at would be-

Dave:

Look, having a fall protection plan, I would imagine, at some point in time you gotta get up on that damn combine or something to work on it. And if you're on top of it, you gotta chance to fall off of it. I don't know how many people I know. I know farmers that have gotten their foot, hands, or whatever, caught in the implement, and all of sudden its like they can't give you a high five, but they can give you a high four. So they've lost a finger, or mangled something, so all kinds of bad stuff.

Fred:

And that confined space, I mean, that's something that no farmers probably gotta confined space like a gas detection monitor.

Dave:

No, and you'll see it all the time. Another one is they'll come into barns and it'll get to such a concentration, it kills all the pigs. So I mean they're actually work trying to figure out systems that will measure that honey room, as well as measuring air quality in the confinement.

Fred:

Number seven was truck drivers and other drivers. Which I mean, that's just gotta be accidents, right?

Dave:

You'd have to believe that-

Fred:

918 fatalities, so that's 24, would be the rate. [inaudible 00:13:46] almost, you can just assume icy roads, I guess you're in a big truck so you got some protection level against an accident, but-um, sleep. That'd be one of the major hazards, is that guys tend to go to sleep in them.

Dave:

Well, I mean, we've come a long way with traffic laws. Some people are required to kinda keep a log book, they can only drive for so long before they need to sleep. But its fog, you know, people, you hear all the time people kinda fudging those, and it's like, I get that you're trying to get done what you're trying to get done, but if you're in a vehicle that weighs 50,000 pounds-

Fred:

Kill someone's family.

Dave:

Yeah., so that one would probably be the highest. Maybe like, I'm Joe Trucker and my truck breaks down on the side of the road, and all the time you'll see these guys-

Fred:

Hop right on out-

Dave:

Hop right out-

Fred:

Foot almost on the feet, on the interstate.

Dave:

Yeah, and it's like, man, you know? Get that thing over a little bit. You didn't put any flares or triangles or anything out. And some of its people are asses. How many times do you sit there and you see people, and it's like, "Why are you not getting over? Why do you feel the need to get that close-you can reach out and slap him or something?"

Fred:

You want him to hear you go by? So maybe in those guy's scenarios tho, that's high visibility would be, have that in your truck for when you get outta the truck and you gotta go walk around, or whatever, throw on a high-viz vest. Just make yourself more visible out there, I can see your big truck but, they might not see your little ass walking out around your big truck. Something to take a look at.

Number six, seems a little bit more obvious, would be, structural iron and steel workers.

Dave:

I could completely see that.

Fred:

But that says only 16 fatalities that that's- there must not be a lot of guys that do that work, so it's the 25-

Dave:

Yeah steel [inaudible 00:15:56], there's a lot of [inaudible 00:15:58] for doing it, but obviously not as many. People that are driving a truck, you know? But, no, you're working at heights, and also you got things moving around you that are heavy, so, maybe somethings not rigged right, you see that all the time. Where the rigging comes undone and also you're dropping this beam. Are you gonna get squished, is it gonna knock you off or something?

Fred:

Yeah, [inaudible 00:16:27] swinging. Really trying to get it to where it needs to go, it's swinging, and then some guy gets his ass in the way and swings right into him and bounces him off the beam that he's working. Definitely have a fall protection plan that guys are trained on for them, and then just awareness of your surroundings I would say would be the biggest things they would look at there.

So number five, wait that was number, wait, no no no...moving on, refuse and recyclable materials collectors. Is it refuse? Is that how you pronounce the word? Refuse? Refuse?

Dave:

Refuse.

Fred:

Refuse then. Recyclable material collectors. That's 31 fatalities, that's 34 injury rate. So do you think that's more roadway safety? Like guys are getting hit by cars or you think that's more of somebody-

Dave:

Its gotta be [inaudible 00:17:22].

Fred:

You think?

Dave:

Well I can see people get crushed, I mean that happens all the time. Maybe they got around-trying to think of the last time I heard somebody get crushed in a situation like this, you know they'll have those big squishy machines that make it into bales or whatever, somebody got baled up. They got pulled in. So maybe it's that whole break-away clothing or whatever where you want the rip off shirts and pants so that you don't end up in a bale or corrugated cardboard.

Fred:

Yikes.

Alright, number four, roofers.

Dave:

[00:18:06]

That makes sense. And what's funny about that is residents were roofing. They come out with a standard thing to it. They come out with it again and everybody sits there and-how many people passed?

Fred:

101.

Dave:

101.

Fred:

Yeah, that's 48 per 100,000. Pretty high.

Dave:

I mean-

Fred:

That's too high-

Dave:

That's too high, yeah.

Fred:

For a job that, for the most part, I'm assuming it's one accident, people falling off the roof.

Dave:

I don't know what else it'd be.

Fred:

I'm sure there's a couple guys that something else happened to em, but for the most part, it's people falling off the roof.

Dave:

At some point in time somebody probably had a heart attack. So there's something like that. I mean, the fact that we still know about some hazards and people lobby to get things-you know they came out with that residential roof standard, then kinda pulled it back. Part of it is nobody-sometimes there's not a real good answer, or best answer, but there should be something in place. I mean they have a speed limit in Montana. Nobody lives in Montana, there's not reason for a speed limit. But there are some people so, yeah, there should be at least be some kind of guidance there. Instead of-Spring is supposedly sprung, just hasn't appeared to of happened here yet, but you're gonna see people running around on [inaudible 00:19:40], I mean, how they do that, I have no idea. I'm scared sh**less of heights.

Fred:

I told you I did satellite dish for a whole summer and get up there you can get a little dizzy. I'm not too afraid of heights, but you start getting a little bit close to the edge and, those guys are working hard, lifting heavy stuff with all their tools, standing [crosstalk 00:20:04]

Dave:

They're just running around like a-I don't know-

Fred:

Shirt on, Nike airs, or their converses or whatever, just slipping and skidding up there. Doing it on a hot day, with a guitar, and [crosstalk 00:20:17]

Dave:

Like crazy, crazy steep. I'd want it flat.

Fred:

No thank you.

Dave:

I'm might pass on that.

Fred:

Number three was aircraft pilots and flight engineers. Little bit out of our realm, but it's a 75 fatalities, so that's a 55 fatal work injury rate.

Dave:

I have no idea what that would-

Fred:

Crashes? I feel there's not that many plane crashes.

Dave:

There's not that many plane crashes.

Fred:

Unless its like a Harrison Ford style [crosstalk 00:20:51]

Dave:

There's always like the doctors, wife, are headed to Florida-

Fred:

That's what I'm saying, the Harrison Ford flying an airplane.

Dave:

But you wouldn't think that that would fit that.

Fred:

It must, or engineers I guess technically could be people on the runway? Maybe that happens every once in a while? That's not should be happen but some dumb ass just gets in the way of an airplane. [inaudible 00:21:19] I don't know.

Dave:

That would be a horrible way to go.

Fred:

It's a quick way to go. I don't know. Anyways.

Dave:

Wouldn't care for that.

Fred:

Number two, fishers, and related fisher workers.

Dave:

I guess I had always heard that, but, you watch that, what's it called? Deadliest Catch or whatever? When they're in-it's cold, so if you go overboard-

Fred:

Is that the show with like the crew, and the guys that work on a boat?

Dave:

Yeah they got like five different boats and like hate each other, but love each other. It's kinda-[inaudible 00:21:58]

Fred:

All the p****, and move on or whatever.

Dave:

It's a toss up between that or Wicked Tuna, which is a better fishing reality TV show.

Fred:

Its gotta be Deadliest Catch because that's the one I've heard of.

Dave:

But, you know, you see these guys get knocked over when they'll pull big baskets in or whatever. It always seems like the weathers just ungodly. Like why would you ever get on a boat, go out in the-

Fred:

24 fatalities in that one. That's an 86, that the rate, the injury rate on that one.

Dave:

Not a lot [inaudible 00:22:35] fisher guys, I'm guessing.

Fred:

Number one is logging workers. It's 91 fatalities, that's 135 out of 100,000. [crosstalk 00:22:53]

Dave:

Again you're kinda-you're working probably heights, you're working around significant amount of weights to where I'm sure people get crushed all the time. [crosstalk 00:23:05]

Somebody yells timber, somebody doesn't run the right way, I'm sure that [crosstalk 00:23:09]

Fred:

Zig when he shoulda zagged.

Pretty heavy duty machines. So that could be part of it too.

Dave:

With the equipment squishing people, but that was one that when you look at-you got Federal OSHA, and you got State OSHA, federals out there unless state wants to have their own state mandated, and I know a lot of the states where logging is big, lot of times they'll have a state run OSHA. And that's because, when you look at Federal OSHA, it doesn't have the guidelines that are deep enough in some of that stuff.

So when you talk about some of these specialty trades like that-to be honest with ya, I don't know or not, but maybe Alaska, because of people died on Deadliest Catch, that there's some rules that other states don't have in their-where they've kinda figured out the "you know, you really shouldn't do that, we've proven that with Billy and Bobby and Jim and Ted, they've all been squished because they did something this way."

Fred:

So does some of that specialty job stuff get caught up in general duty?

Dave:

Well everything always gonna fall under general duty. General duties a broad brush that basically-

Fred:

That's why I just think a lot of those special-like-we're not gonna write a fishing standard for 26 guys that do it in our state. That's kind of-you were fishing, you should've protected someone again.

Dave:

You should've known that somebody could have got hooked because there's a fishing hook, and you're throwing it around. You shoulda had either everybody in protective fishing clothing, versus-

Fred:

Yeah, net thing that goes over your face so you don't get hooked in the limb.

Dave:

Yeah, always.

I don't miss that at all.

Fred:

So, we're gonna get on here-actually, that went pretty well. Little bit worried about that one, I'd say we made it through, figured it out.

So move on to the dumbass of the week this week.

Announcer 2:

Dumbass of the week!

Fred:

So, this week-I think young Fred can be the dumbass of the week. Because young Fred in his 20s worked at hardware stores, worked in grocery stores, but was always quick to get in that trash compactor. You throw like a pallet over the top or something like that, and you run the trash compactor, and it'll get jammed up, and all you gotta do is get in there with a rod and unjam it, and you're not supposed to get in it. So young Fred got a write-up once for climbing in through the front and going in with like a metal pole or something like that, really tryna get that pallet loose because-everyone wants to go home. All it would've taken was someone for someone on the outside to of not known that I was in there, shut the door, and turned on that thing, and all of a sudden, young Fred's not here doing this podcast. That's being a dumbass.

Dave:

You got wrote up?

Fred:

Oh yeah. I didn't get fired, but I did get a-

Dave:

Did you do some retraining?

Fred:

No, just a don't do that again. Hey dumb ass, don't do that again. I was called a dumb ass to my face[inaudible 00:26:28]

There's lots of that that goes on. You brought up the guys working with the bailors, I mean there's [crosstalk 00:26:36]

Dave:

You hear about it all the time, and-

Fred:

Those are heavy, heavy things too.

Dave:

Well you sit there and look at the machine guard, and stuff like that, it's like, it is 2018, we've got this figured out. Why would you-I mean obviously the little plastic cover probably doesn't effect the-

Fred:

Performance?

Dave:

Well effect that Lowe's can sell it to ya for $99.95. I'm sure the plastic guard is $0.03 or something like that, but it's amazing how far we are but how far away from that we are. There's companies like Rockford Rig is one that's out there, and all they sell is stuff to guard machines, and conveyors, and all this stuff that is new. People are buying it and then they're going back in there and going, "well, there's not guarding on this." So somebody's gotta go in there and make sure you don't have catch points, or that you're not gonna get sucked in through the motor.

You would think that there would be-we can keep a garage door opener for going down on our car, that's pretty simple technology, like there's a lot of that we could use somewhere.

Fred:

On a kid, I think that's what the designed those things for, is it not? For a human?

Dave:

Oh, I've got a story. We started having problems with the component in the garage door not be operating right, and finally after this has gone on, and I kept adjusting-you know you get up there and you adjust the tension and everything, it's still messed up. It's almost like it's almost burnt out. Well, finally, the neighbor from across the, they're older couple so they come across, they're just laughing, and they're like "Mavericks so funny." We're like, what's funny bout Maverick? "Well, couple times a day he must hit the garage door open, and he runs over, and he rides it up, and then drops to the ground."

Fred:

Sure enough, that's what did it?

Dave:

So no, the sensor did not help that at all.

Fred:

Right.

Dave:

But needless to say, it was just a new garage door opener, simple fix.

Fred:

Alright, so anyways, let's move on to Q&A.

Number one, what happens when electrical gloves are sent in to be tested?

Dave:

Couple things. First thing that they're gonna do is they're going to do that whole visual inspection to see if, [inaudible 00:29:31] is there any noticeable burns or lacerations or, as those get older they'll crack a little bit. Oxidation. Maybe there's ozone marks on em. So they'll do a complete inspection, and most people don't realize what the-you can ask for em back. If you wanna see where they failed. And usually they'll come back if there's like a, something like that, they'll be circled like a paint marker.

So you got that, and then, just like you should do kinda the rolled out test to make sure that there's no pinholes or anything, they'll actually do a pressure test. From there, you're going through a- typically it's referred to as male lab, and they've gotta set protocol, so there's all kinds of little-it's not just like a one step test, it's multiple step test. Then they basically stamp em that they've been tested.

Fred:

It's every six months right? They're required to do it every six months, right? Or is that not the case?

Dave:

Six months is how good it is when it's put in surface. So as long as they're in a bag, in a climate control, you know all those little caveats that needs to be packaged up. When they'll come back from the lab they'll usually be in a sulifane enclosed, sealed bag. Theoretically, that the glove's longest life it can be, is 18 months. It can remain in the bag for up to a year, but the day you put it service, you have six months. But that also gets back into the whole-you gotta look at the damn things everyday. Just because somebody sent it in and got it tested three months ago, does not mean that it's okay tomorrow. 

So it gets into some of that authorized user training where, if you're gonna use these, you need to make sure that you put some pressure on them. There's devices out there that you can-little glove testers where you put [crosstalk 00:31:49] and you pump it up, if it holds air, good luck. Take a look at it. If you're looking at your electrical gloves and you're like "well that cuts not all the way through it, it should be fine."

Fred:

There's a circle under that changes like a light color.

Dave:

We've got a problem there.

Fred:

I think that's one of the those things that people just, "Send em in! Who knows what happens to em. Send em in and they come back."

Dave:

[crosstalk 00:32:15] Santa Claus. No they're actually-there's a protocol that they're working through.

Fred:

Can we use an organic vapor filter when fit testing for a half face respirator?

Dave:

If it has a P100 and if it's a multi-step cartridge. If it's just an OV, no. You have again, when you're fit testing, it's measuring particles, you need a particle filter. Particle filter then is, obviously, a P100 high efficiency filter.

Fred:

So it has to be a P100, like a particular filter, that filters 95 whatever, like that, will that get it done?

Dave:

Yeah, 99.7% of particles go through microbes, I think is what it says it does. So not even a 95, a high efficiency [inaudible 00:33:11]

Fred:

So that's not something that- I think most people think, "I'm gonna get this thing fit tested for what [crosstalk 00:33:18]"

But you'd think if you're wearing gas filters, vapor filters, this is what i should be wearing when I get fit tested for this device. So we're saying is that's not necessarily the case.

Dave:

Because it's only filtering vapors.

Fred:

There's no way to test-

Dave:

There's completely different-

Fred:

Vapor tests, at least that-

Dave:

Not that I've heard of. I haven't seen them. I'm not gonna say that it doesn't maybe exist in Australia or something, but I've never heard of it.

Fred:

Cool.

Number three, do you have any recommendations for training topics that you've seen live demonstrations on. So this is one that we kind of talked about a little bit prior to recording this, cause there's not a ton of stuff that's really out there. Some fault protection, they can do some drop tests that are pretty cool, to see the truck, lift up a dummy and drop it, really see how your fall protection preforms. There's some video stuff that's out there. [crosstalk 00:34:16]

Dave:

I went through some sula training that 3M does and, they'll have the little viles, and they'll be like, "this is all the silica that you can have in a year." And you look at it like, "there's hardly any of it-can't even see it."

Sometimes stuff like that kinda helps your mind wrap around, well-the governments telling you you're gonna die if you get this much. And then you're looking at it and you're like, "I can't even see how much it is." Kinda drops-some of that stuff will drop points.

Fred:

Saw a pretty cool one that somebody did where they had a hardhat that was sitting on the ground, and they had a big, long, 100 foot PBC tube, I mean it wasn't PBC, but it was a tube, and they dropped a big bolt through that and got to see what happens when it hit the hard hat, or when it hit like a watermelon without a hard hat on. So some of those things you can do, that really gives someone a good visual.

One of my customers did an eyeglass one where they took a regular pair of eyeglasses and they had a nail gun, and from a little bit of a distance they shot a nail through the eyeglasses. Then the Z87 pair of safety glasses, they shot the nail into that, so you got to see how the different eyewear preformed.

So there are some cool things you can do. There's lots of video material out there, but it is cool to see stuff in person, live, and I think people do-

Dave:

And unfortunately it's to show what happens afterwards. Not like you just wanna sit there and have a horror film, but sometimes it hits home when people see a-

Fred:

Pile of bodies.

Dave:

The pile of bodies. You know there's multiple speakers out there that have been in work place accidents and that's kind of what they do, they explain, "Man I showed up for work, and didn't really know what I'm doing, now I don't have this-"

Fred:

Yeah safety first was just a [inaudible 00:36:18]-I didn't pay attention to it when I went in to work.

Used to do like a cut resistant glove over a piece of fruit, used to do that, so that gives you a pretty good idea when you take a utility knife and you kind of run it across a piece of fruit with a safety glove on it. Then you take the glove off, and you see how easy it is to slice into that.

There's some cool things that you can do. So that's kinda what we got.

As I've recently hit 35 years old, couple of small children at home, I've started to acquire some stupid injuries. Like the old, I'd go bowling with my buddies in my early 20s, and you wake up the next day after bowling, and your hamstring is kinda sore, you start stretching it and you're like, "What the hell did I do to do that?" Then I'll do the bowling motion, see how I plant my leg, I'm like, "O, yep, there it is! That's my bowling muscles are sore."

Right now we got some snow over the weekend and I'm feeling it, get that shovel and snow for 15 minute injuries.

Dave:

I do that every winter at some point. Then it's getting the chiro to get you locked backup, and the way you're still supposed to be. It's not, how to say, it's just kinda how God created ya, not necessarily-

Fred:

I've made an investment in a floor roller. They got the little nodules on it, you just kinda slide up and down with your back, it works pretty good.

Dave:

Knead out the muscle pain.

Fred:

But the ones that have recently been getting me is like, really stupid things, like a kid will throw a ball at me, and I'll reach my arm up quickly, and all of a sudden like, "O, my shoulder!"

The other day I'm just sitting on the couch, and I reach forward to grab a cup, before it got knocked over, but I reached too fast, and I'm 35 years old, and I about throw my back out like reaching for a cup. Pretty embarrassing, but it got me thinking, my favorite, and I always go to sports, kinda how I grew up, so, sport's injuries. My favorite, stupid, sport injuries. Like someone reaching for a cup on a table, but Sammy Sosa, I don't know if you remember this, but it was when he was in his home run hay day, and he went on the DL for two weeks from sneezing. He sneezed and it like hurt his neck. Just from a random sneeze. He's a professional athlete.

Gus Frerotte, the quarterback for the Red Skins, that he ran in for a touchdown after he scored a touchdown, went to the wall behind the end zone, and hit his helmet on the wall. And it gave him a concussion.

One of the Gramatica brothers that celebrated after he kicked the field goal, he jumped up in the air and kicked and he tore his ACL, like celebrating.

Mike Sculbaris, shooting himself in the damn leg in the club wearing sweatpants.

Dave:

O I've got a stupid one. High School tennis. I went up for an overhead, got my foot caught in the net. Running in and jump for an overhead, and got foot caught in the-

Fred:

Spun ya?

Dave:

Twisted my ankle so bad, I mean I was like six weeks-it was one of the ones that gets all black and blue and has to just settle out.

Fred:

Did you finish the match?

Dave:

No.

Fred:

Called it?

Dave:

That was it.

Fred:

Forfeit?

Dave:

I couldn't walk man.

Fred:

Should've toughed it out though.

Dave:

No.

Fred:

Wasn't happening?

Dave:

No.

Fred:

So my favorite one that I read was Hunter Pence, I think he's on the Giants now, he's a baseball player, used to be on the Astros but-

Dave:

Oh, he's a goofy looking dude, right?

Fred:

Little bit.

Dave:

Looks a little odd.

Fred:

He's gotta odd stance, but hell of a ball player.

Dave:

I'll admit, he gets it done in the playoffs every year.

Fred:

I have to guess that there was some alcohol involved in this, cause he was hanging out with buddies, in their hot tub, at his house, hopped out of the hot tub, went running inside the house, and ran just straight through the patio door. Got all cut up, he went on the DL for a couple weeks.

These are professional athletes that these sorta stupid injuries happened, so it leads me to believe that the working man that's out there, blue collar, how easy is it for you to have something like this, you know, something stupid happen? Let alone, the things that we're trying to prepare for, like-[crosstalk 00:40:44] a sneeze can set you off when you're at heights, all of a sudden you sneeze and you fall off a building cause you weren't wearing fall protection.

Dave:

Like when you went for the sippy cup that was getting ready to get knocked over, sometimes that's that whole mental thing of, "Oh, I'll just clean that up after it spills."

Fred:

Gotta fight your instincts.

Dave:

Classic example. I do that all the time. Just trying to, like somethings falling and you're trying to get at it.

Fred:

Anyways, all this danger talk has me wanting to climb in my bubble and take a nap, and just stay away from the world. Stay safe and sound. But I suppose we can't do that.

Dave:

No. We did have a reading bubble when I was in elementary school.

Fred:

They get inside a bubble, and go read?

Dave:

Well they took like a real thick painters drop cloth and they plugged it up to a fan, and so if you were really good that week, you got to read in the reading bubble. Kinda had [inaudible 00:41:52] was like a reward. Like, "This is so cool! I'm sitting in the reading bubble!"

Fred:

That's what-you see the game where you play soccer but you're in the bubbles and [crosstalk 00:42:04]

Dave:

And you see people light people up, right?

Fred:

They just go through and they run and they do like a summersault, and a flip, in your little bubble thing. Was pretty fun, but it must be safe. Must be, right? Gotta be safe.

Dave:

You seen those sumo wrestler suits?

Fred:

I've been in one of those before.

Dave:

Have you?

Fred:

Yep.

Dave:

Seems like that would shake you up pretty good.

Fred:

I've done that at the Bicks or something over the summer, the race, and I did one of those ones where you had like the boxing gloves, I was the little kid with the boxing gloves, like the size of a beach ball on each hand, you go through and you're punching-it still hurts. Knocked out as a 12 year old fighting with your buddy.

But anyways, so to all our listeners out there, just remember, we're trying to make safety a priority. It has to be something that we talk about all the time, not just once a year at your safety training review.

So, thank you guys for tuning in, without you we'd just be a couple guys recording ourselves talking to each other. That's just awkward.

Dave:

Yeah, it's a little awkward.

Fred:

So our way thank you is to offer up some cool gifts for listening. So please, go ahead, share our show with friends, with coworkers, leave us a review on I-tunes, we'll send you some sweet swag or some of our candy bacon. If you can't get enough of us check out QuadCitySafety.com. Safety's got no quitting time. We'll see you next time.

Announcer:

Thanks for listening in to Dave and Bacon's Safety Tales. Brought to you by QuadCitySafety. Send us your questions on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, at QuadCitySafety #SafetyTales, or email them to Fred at QuadCitySafety.com. He's the guy keeping this mess of a show in line. And if you like the show, please rate review us on I-tunes. It's a kick a** way to show you care about safety.