Launching our new boots only website! (Safety Tales Podcast S3 Episode 3)

Intro:

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, what's up, everybody? It's time for another episode of Dave & Bacon's Safety Tales.

Dave:

We made it!

Fred:

Yeah. We're excited. We're excited for this one! We appreciate you all listening to us and hopefully some of you all are sharing our story with your friends and coworkers. We kind of set out to make this thing a good conversation and you guys get to be a part of it, so hopefully make safety a little bit simpler a topic.

Dave:

Yeah. I think too often, people try to make it scarier than it is. Our goal is just to kind of sit here, have a conversation and hopefully cover some stuff that maybe we don't ... Or you don't understand, that maybe we can shed some light on because we're really not that intelligent. If we can understand it, we really feel like we can down on the small piece for you.

Fred:

It's like we said, we're excited. I don't know if you've ever seen ... Have yous ever seen basketball?

Dave:

Yes.

Fred:

[crosstalk 00:01:14] Whenever I said, "We're excited," it comes back to when Al Michaels and Bob Costas were sitting around. I think it's Al Michaels that goes, "I don't know if I've ever been this excited." Bob Costas goes, "You're excited? Whoa, well feel these nipples." Fred and Dave, here at the Quad City Safety.

Dave:

Weren't they on the ESPN, The Ocho?

Fred:

No. That was Jason Bateman. I remember him, he was The Ocho, from Dodgeball.

Dave:

Okay. Sorry, wrong stupid movie about a insignificant sport.

Fred:

Wrong comedy. Fred and Dave, once again here with Quad City Safety. If you want to reach out to us, it's fred@quadcitysafety.com. We're also on LinkedIn. I'm on Twitter as qcsafetyfred. You can reach out to us via our Facebook page as well.

Anyways, get into it. Hopefully, most of you know that we have a website, quadcitysafety.com. On that website, we sell safety products. One of those products is shoes and we sell protective footwear on that site. We don't sell Nikes and Converse, although we do sell some Converse, right?

Dave:

Yeah.

Fred:

Isn't there a Converse that we do sell?

Dave:

Well there's been kind of there for years and years, It was ugly born boots, where about the only thing that they would stick a steel toe in and all the let's say, fashion or sports manufacturers, had noticed that there's room in the space and more space.

A lot of people are jumping into the market. Things that I've never thought that in a million years, that I would see, I'm seeing in protective footwear.

Fred:

Some stuff, you told me a little bit about fashion, there's fashion that are coming out. You see me wear some shoes every once in a while, with white soles and somehow they're starting to have some white sole work coming out.

Dave:

Here you go, brands like a KEEN, that would be kind of like a hippy hiker middle aged dude kind of shoe.

Fred:

Yeah. Father-in-law wears KEENs.

Dave:

That was something that you always went, "Who's that crazy dude? He doesn't have socks on and those are kind of Samuel shoes ." They've erupted into the market now. You name it, everybody's ... Even Puma.

Fred:

Converse, isn't it or Reebok?

Dave:

Yeah. Reebok, Converse. They now have the traditional white mall cruisers, like the 70 year old folks-

Fred:

Like the nurses shoe almost.

Dave:

... getting their steps in. They have that to wear. You name it, you name it.

Fred:

We have a few brick and mortar stores as well, as our website, where we kind of specialize in providing gals and guys, like you, a place to head into. Where we can kind of really find the right pair of boots for you.

Where you're not just going online and you're just buying, "Oh, I wear a size nine and so, I need a protective toe. I'm going to get this Timberland that's on sale. I would say Timberlan, instead of Timberland. Timberland-

Dave:

Timberland Pro.

Fred:

Right. Instead of just doing that, we want to find out a little bit about, what the hazard that you're working in and what's the job that you're doing. How often are you on your feet? We can really narrow down a couple of protective boots that are going to work for you.

Dave:

Yeah. All shoe constructions are not the same. You will have different materials on the out soles. You'll have different materials on the uppers. Somebody that needs a certain construction for whatever their job might be, is going to require a different one than ... I guess, basically what I'm saying is, let's say we're in some kind of ...

If we're working in a steel mill, that's going to be substantially different, than somebody that's maybe in a electronics manufacturing concern, making little green boards. Those are going to be two different requirements. When you look out there, there's a lot of things that people overlook and it's that word "ignorance," that we continue to talk about. As the world wants to be scared of the word ignorant and ignorance is okay.

We're here to help everybody get through that word and really find out an answer. Found out a shoe that meets. Let me go classic example is, there are puts that EH and then there are boots that are ESD. A boot that is electronically ... Are EH, electronic hazard, would be for somebody that's say, a electrician. That boot is going to keep, if there's some level of shock, it's going to keep that from going to ground.

It's going to keep them from getting shocked. Well, you take a person and put them in a ESD boot, which is electrostatic dissipative, that means that you are trying to make it a ground. If you give an electrician a pair of ESD boots, you've given them something that's going to put them ... If they get close to an electrical art, that art may pick ...

That electricity always wants to find ground and it may pick them and that shoe is helping it pick them, versus if they were in a EH, that wouldn't create the ground and the shock the crap out of them.

Fred:

We kind of spend a lot of time in our retail stores, talking to our folks that come in, talking to people that are working these different jobs, to really figure out what their expectations are in those boots. We decided that we want to start a website, where we bring that experience online.

Dave:

Yeah. We're trying to do a better job because right now, we have protective footwear on our site. Just like everybody's shopping experience, it's going to brown hiker and it's going to be words like that. While that's important to the search, is going after some of those hazards that ...

Let's say somebody is in an environment where they need an insulated boot or they need that ESD boot or whatever the requirements are, is really trying to gear the website search engine, to find or help take the knowledge that we usually deal with when we're fitting somebody in a store and give that experience to them online.

Fred:

The plan is, we're going to have this website, so that you can buy your boots from experts, instead of you trying to do all the research to figure out what you need. We're going to try and walk you through that process, to be able to buy the right pair of boots that's specific for your trade or your job.

Dave:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Fred:

If you know what you need and you prefer to buy your PPE from experts, instead of just like a generic company, we're going to have a boots.quadcitysafety.com. You'll be able to go on there. We'll give you a quick place to make your purchases, from a trusted supplier, who's kind of got your back there.

If you aren't sure if your boots are the best option for your work, this new website should help you figure it out or if you prefer to talk to a live person, you'll be able to reach us right from the site and get kind of a personalized boot specialist right there for you. That's kind of the goal.

Dave:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Fred:

What we're going to do now is, we're going to switch to a little interview that Dave did. It's going to deal with someone that actually works in our retail store, so she can kind of talk a little bit about what they do in there. Hopefully give you a little bit of insight as to, what we're going to look to bring online.

Dave:

Good morning Jamie. Jamie's sitting down here. We're we're talking form our intergalactic headquarters here in Davenport, Iowa. We just wanted to sit down and kind of have a quick conversation. We're getting ready to relaunch our website and as it relates to protective footwear. Jamie is somebody who's very close. Jamie, why don't you introduce yourself to everybody out there?

Jamie:

My name is Jamie. I've been with Quad City Safety for about four and a half years now. I'm a mom to a new baby at home but that's about my life story.

Dave:

You've had a really, really busy life lately.

Fred:

Yeah. I definitely have, yeah.

Dave:

I'm telling you, from marriage to kids, that was-

Jamie:

All within a year.

Dave:

... pretty freaking incredible. Tell us a little bit about that. How is being a mom and being in the protective footwear/safety market?

Jamie:

Well you know, I'm loving being a mom but I'm not a person that likes to just sit at home, so I was definitely glad to get back to work. On days, I definitely find myself being tired and forgetting things I wouldn't normally forget.

Dave:

How to say, mine are starting to step out of the house, so I could not imagine starting-

Jamie:

Starting over.

Dave:

... starting over. Talk about-

Jamie:

Sometimes those nights are rough.

Dave:

Yeah. I'll bet they are. Tell me, how did you get it ... Obviously, I know your story but how did you end up in the safety industry?

Jamie:

Well I was working at a gym and the gym actually went out of business and Mike was actually a member at the gym and he had told me that you guys were hiring. Through him, I came over here and honestly, had no idea that this place existed or what exactly it entailed but I've learned that the world or safety, is much larger than I would have ever imagined.

Dave:

Tell me what you think you thought it was and then, what you all of the sudden ... You've come a long way in your knowledge. Tell me what you thought it was and what you really woke up to see it as.

Jamie:

My cousin and uncle are both in construction, so I really honestly, just thought it was hard hats and glasses. I had no idea the in-depth fall protection, gas monitoring equipment and even protective footwear.

I had no idea what the difference between a steel toe and a metatarsal was when I started here. Learning a little bit more about the details and the specifics of everything. It's much more of a broad spectrum than I would have ever thought.

Dave:

Tell me about, obviously you get to help people find stuff, that hopefully returns them to work. What are you finding ... From a knowledge standpoint, there's a lot of ignorance when it comes to safety out there, isn't it?

Jamie:

Oh definitely. Yeah. A lot of times people come in not even really sure what they need and what they're looking for. I would have been one of those people, just a few short years ago. It definitely takes some time and some education, to figure out what exactly it is you need. Hopefully, that's what we're here to help people kind of figure out.

Dave:

You got a quick story of somebody that came in and you kind of changed their world by, "Oh my God, I had no idea that such an animal existed out there"?

Jamie:

I would say the place where people have been the most unsure of, is fall protection. Just not realizing all the different ways of anchoring in and tying off to different stuff, to make sure that they are ... Then people come in and they'll buy a harness and don't realize they need a lanyard, to help make sure they don't fall.

There's definitely a bunch of pieces to make the whole and people don't realize how many pieces are involved.

Dave:

Yeah. It is a system. When you talk about protective footwear, what's some stories? Sometimes it's the guy with the size 25 foot. You got any good ones there, from that realm of things?

Jamie:

We did recently have a gentleman come ... Actually, I think he called in looking for a size 18 metatarsal. After calling around to manufacturers, found out that it is not even really possible to make a metatarsal to the standard, for that large of a foot.

That was interesting. We've had a couple of people come in in the past year, I would say, that have told us that we've saved their foot, from having them in the right metatarsal shoe, rather than the steel toe.

Dave:

That's got to make you feel pretty good.

Jamie:

Oh yeah, it's nice. The people, they love us and they're happy and sad. They're happy that we saved their foot but then they're here buying another pair of boots.

Dave:

Yeah. It's a blessing. That's the funny thing about safety supplies is, people complain about having to go buy another one but it's kind of like, "Man, you really get to walk around, that's pretty cool."

Jamie:

Yeah. You also want to use those people because that guy will tell you the amount of a boot, is much cheaper than having your foot cut off.

Dave:

Oh, there's no doubt about that.

Jamie:

Definitely worth investing.

Dave:

That's a lot of time to think to think. What people don't realize is, that accidents are not like happening every second, where there's bodies piling up and sometimes, it's over time. I think a lot of times, we don't look at PPE like the insurance policy. I mean, everybody has a car insurance policy or renders or home ... Everybody hopefully, never has to use them.

That's a really shitty day, when you wake up and you got to use those. Sometimes I think it's hard for us to wrap our minds around it. We're just buying a little bitty baby insurance policy, for our eyes or for our feet, so that gravity does not cause us to hit terminal velocity and smash into the ground.

Jamie:

Right, exactly.

Dave:

Lots of fun there. What's new that you've seen out there, in the land of protective footwear? I know that you all have manufacturers come through and kind of show you the newest, latest, greatest. What's some things that kind of tripped you up and where you had some wow factors?

Jamie:

About twice a year, we bring in all of our manufacturers and evaluate what's new in the world of safety shoes. One thing that I'm pretty excited about is, KEEN is a manufacturer that's really seeming to get with the modern trends. They're getting some metatarsals in their line of shoes, which is really nice to see.

Then Timberland always comes out with some new great heavy duty work boot, that is for the man's man in the working field. Something that I'm excited about with them this year ...

Dave:

Big bub of beef jerky and hangs out with Sasquatch, kind of guy.

Jamie:

Right, definitely.

Dave:

What is that? The Boon-

Jamie:

The Boondock.

Dave:

Boondock series.

Jamie:

Yeah. It's probably my favorite boot we have in stock right now. In fact, I sold three of them on Saturday or Friday.

Dave:

Bullet proof, aren't they?

Jamie:

Bullet proof?

Dave:

No, I'm joking.

Jamie:

Oh yeah. I was like, "No, I don't think so," but they're near close as you can be, I guess. The other thing I'm excited about with both those manufacturers is, they have made some specifically women's shoes.

Dave:

That's a tough one, is despite the amount of labor participation, we do a really ... I think we do a better job but the protective footwear market doesn't really do a good job for women. I think that a lot of people struggle and don't get the ...

Women's and men's feet are anatomically different. They are not made the same way. Maybe talk about that a little bit.

Jamie:

In the past, what we had run into is, a lot of the manufacturers had men's boots sized down, small enough to fit a women's foot but generally speaking, women have narrower heels and narrower feet. Even in the smaller sizes, they had a lot of slop and shoes just weren't fitting properly.

We'd have women leaving disgruntled because they were wanting something that was for women. More of our manufacturers are getting with that trend. Like I said, Timberland has got some, Caroline has got some, Keen-

Dave:

It's still an underserved market, you would say, wouldn't you?

Jamie:

Correct, yeah. It's still something that definitely needs work but it's improved pretty vastly, just in the four years that I've been here. I think it's moving quickly.

Dave:

What other things do you see out there changing in protective footwear? Is it just fashion? I think recently, you're starting to see a little bit more in the puncture resistance maybe or a request for that.

Jamie:

Yeah. Puncture resistance is a big one. Another thing that we've been seeing more frequently is, the office workers that just have to go out on the factory floor. I've been on some visits, where I've seen them wearing just a regular dress shoe and they're now also being required to wear protective footwear.

We're trying to also increase, what we have as far as a dressy looking protective toe shoe. That's something that I think is also kind of fitting, not just the guys that are working but also the guys that are kind of behind the scenes. If that makes sense.

Dave:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that when we try to do it a little bit different, you might take somebody through the journey of, how you make sure that they get into the right shoe.

Jamie:

Yeah. I think the first thing we address with people or try to address with people when they come in here is, where they're working. What kind of an environment it is that they're working in, whether it be indoor, outdoor. Construction or are they in a factory, that kind of stuff. Then a lot of the accounts we have set up, we know whether they need just the steel toe or whether a metatarsal's required, so we can kind of narrow down the selection there.

Then most people generally have some sort of specifics they're looking for, whether it be waterproof or they want the boot to be wide or puncture resistant. Basically, it's just asking different questions of what they're looking for, to narrow down the scope of what it is that's the best fit for them.

Dave:

It's not a one side. I think a lot of times, people think that you just walk in there and a steel toe boot is a steel toe boot. While yeah, by the tag, it might be but the experience of, how to say, you're still pretty young.

I'm getting to that age where, man, if I'm going to be on my feet, I'm paying real close attention to what I'm putting on my feet because I want to make sure that I'm comfortable and I'm not going to wake up with a bunch of back pain because I wanted to look cool, versus [crosstalk 00:20:16].

Jamie:

For example on that, having the right fitting thing. We have two Timberland shoes that are both fairly popular. The Boondock that we talked about before, is one of them. People will ask us to measure their foot and we do and in the Boondock, they'll be a size nine and it's a regular width.

In one of our other Timberland's they're a nine and a half and it's a wide. It's because the Boondock has a wide toe cap and extra features like that. Even two boots from the same manufacturer, you could be two different sizes there.

Dave:

Yeah. At different last ones, well [inaudible 00:20:48] different products.

Jamie:

Yeah.

Dave:

Your background was, you played volleyball, right?

Jamie:

Soccer. Coached volleyball, played soccer.

Dave:

Okay. I get them mixed up. You played it all the way through, right?

Jamie:

Through college, yeah. I played at Wartburg College up in Waverly, Iowa.

Dave:

Yeah. There's a bunch of little schools up there in that area. When you look back, tell me about what you thought you got from that? I think the team sports, sometimes people don't pay attention to how it effects people's lives.

Jamie:

Yeah. I would say the biggest thing and something I try to bring to work and just everywhere I go daily is, the teamwork mentality of, I don't have to like you but I got to work with you, so we've got to find a way to work together, type of thing.

To be honest, you're not going to like everyone you come into contact with but you have to find a way to work with people. I think that's one of the biggest thing, you know, finding ways to just work with people.

Dave:

Are you still coaching?

Jamie:

No, not since I had a baby. I got asked to coach this year but ...

Dave:

I was wondering, if you ... No time for that right now.

Jamie:

Not for a couple of more years, then we'll probably get back into it again, once she's playing.

Dave:

There you go. Right on. Well Jamie, I really appreciate you taking the time to sit down and help our listeners get a understanding of ... We have a lot of pieces here at Quad City Safety but I appreciate you helping us out, explain one of these pieces.

Jamie:

Yeah, no problem.

Dave:

Thanks.

Jamie:

Jamie out.

Fred:

All right. Next, we're going to get into our dumb arse of the week this week.

Dave:

Got to love the dumbass of the week.

Fred:

Yeah. I was talking to a guy the other day. For the purpose of this story, we'll call him Ryan. Ryan is one of those guys that you talk to, who knew a guy, who knew a guy and he preferred not to wear a steel toe boot because he had heard and I've actually heard this a couple of times, that a steel toe boot could amputate your toes.

Something would land on the steel that's inside of the boot, curl that steel, somehow cut off your toes. He was safer wearing a regular boot, without a steel toe, versus that. I think that kind of becomes an urban legend. Not really something that actually happens. In your opinion Dave, I would say, everyone that has a potential hazard where something could land on their foot, should probably be in a steel toe boot and I can't find a documented case, where it actually happened.

Dave:

Well let's put it this way, if you drop a building on your foot, probably [crosstalk 00:23:39] a chance you'll have [crosstalk 00:23:43]. I mean, we're talking a composite, so they're kind of like a space aged plastic. You can have ones that are made of titanium, you can have ones that are made of an aluminum alloy.

Then you've got your traditional steel and one of the things that always drives me nuts is, everybody sits there and toes, "Oh man, these are so much lighter," and I were to blind taste test you and wrap you up and put all three in your hands and say, "Lightest to heaviest," you might get the steel toe one right but the rest of them, you would have out a war. There's not a significant weight difference.

The only main difference that I will tell people is, when you're looking at steel toe caps is that, when you're looking at transfer of heat and cold. That whole misnomer that you're going to cut your toes off, I mean, the amount of weight that you would have to put on that cap, is significant.

Fred:

Right. If you weren't wearing a steel toe and that amount of weight hits your toes.

Dave:

Yeah and I just heard this recently and a man who'd make sense of the science of it is, most manufacturers making protective footwear, won't make one above a size 18 and the reason that they won't do it above a size 18 is, if you think about how long that steel toe is and the base of it, the physics of it.

Obviously, the steel toe's got to keep getting big- You know, I can imagine it looks like a dinner plate, by the time you're to a size 18. Is then, you're starting to look at where the physics of it. You could theoretically do something like that but in just your normal size 13 and under, I mean, I would imagine that it would be a crazy amount of weight.

Fred:

Unless Shaq's probably not going to be working in the steel mill anytime soon.

Dave:

Well him? No, well he's got a son that's getting ready to hopefully play for [EOK 00:25:45], now that it sounds like Arizona [crosstalk 00:25:46].

Fred:

Oh, he's out on Arizona? When something does settle on UK and what's all going on there. You have a couple of guys that maybe had some trouble going through there.

Dave:

I was reading something and basically, the point of a article is he's like, "By the time this whole FBI thing shakes out," he said, "probably it will be like Middle Tennessee State University, will be like one seat or something like that, by the time that they erupt through everybody."

Fred:

Wisconsin will still be there, probably.

Dave:

No. Why Wisconsin?

Fred:

I feel like [crosstalk 00:26:25].

Dave:

Boat rides not in their plate as two three anymore.

Fred:

I thought it was going to be a couple of schools like that, that you're like ... Yeah. I guess they were clean. Everybody else, not so much. They'll retroactively award them the last six national championships.

Dave:

Oh yeah. It will be something stupid.

Fred:

Anyway, with regards to Ryan being a dumb ass, that's something you've just got to do a little bit of research and just don't believe everything that you hear.

Dave:

I mean, you hit the nail on the head. When you look at the testing standards, the testing standards is not actually how everything performs. Realistically, for something to quality as a steel toe is, there's a limit amount of weight dropped from so many feet. Going back to the premise of listening to what somebody says is, number one, you find out what's happened or what the potential hazard is.

You go to standards to figure out, what it says that you have. I haven't really read many standards where they're going to put you in harms way. You look at the fall protection standard, it's a safety factor of two. You look at respiratory standards and how you pick cartridges and stuff, they're not letting you ingest enough or submit yourself to forces or put you at harms way.

If you're using a safety device that follows a set standard, that OSHA points to, then gosh, I'd hope to shot, you'd be okay.

Fred:

Put that one to bed then. Let's comb through the email box here for the week. Number one, we kind of got a little bit into the topic but does a plastic or steel toe protect the same on your work boots?

Dave:

Yeah, I mean, theoretically. Again, it gets into the test standards. When you look at the ASTM tests, the test for steel toe boots, a composite, a titanium toe, [inaudible 00:28:50] is going to test the same as a steel, which is again, we're dropping a specified metal weight from so many feet, creates so many panels feet of force.

Fred:

Yeah. They're using the same standards to test all the styles.

Dave:

Yeah. I guess, I think. Going off the top of my head there. There's so many freaking standards, it's hard to keep all of the numbers. I'm maybe off by one or something on that but looking at that standard, they are all tested to that same specification. Again, it's not meant to drop a building off of. I'm sure, that if you take ...

Here you go, the difference between the way that you should protective footwear is, if it takes that shock, meaning you drop a 50 pound thing that you're lifting up and you drop it on your protective footwear. It's like any piece of personal protective equipment, you should take it out of service.

Well you know, steel people don't and there's an argument for, if it's a composite toe, then maybe you should because again, some of those plastics can severe or break and then cause you to pick up some nice plastic shards in your feet.

Fred:

Right. It already did its job. Once a big 6 x 6 all of the sudden slides off the truck and lands on your toe, [crosstalk 00:30:24] its job.

Dave:

Yeah. It's the same as a hard hat, same as a harnesses, anytime something's seen a force that it's tested to protect somebody by, that's kind of like, that's your insurance policy. You've cashed your insurance policy, which means you get to keep your piggies. You've got to think about it, toes are pretty important. Without your big toe, you really can't stand up.

I mean, you harvest somebody's big t- Realistically, if you're going to want to get away from Jason or somebody like that, you should cut their big toe off first. Even though they're walking slow, this way they're at least crawling. Hopefully, they can't crawl faster than you can run through the house, opening, slamming doors and trying [crosstalk 00:31:10].

Fred:

Opening the cabinet doors, so they whack their head as they run by. That's something [inaudible 00:31:16], I think I brought it up before in the ... Kids car seats, having two little ones at home. They will tell you you get in a bumper to bumper going 20 miles an hour, somebody runs into your bumper, you're supposed to replace those car seats that are inside the car.

Insurance will usually cover them. Anyways, question number two, who can make the call as to whether an anchor point is compliant?

Dave:

Who can make the call?

Fred:

Yeah.

Dave:

That's kind of a-

Fred:

Tricky pickle?

Dave:

Well it's just because it's all these words that flutter around in the standards. We have authorized and then we have competent and then we have certified ... There's all these ranges of people and when you're putting in an anchor point, the whole thing is, you have certified anchor points and non-certified anchor points.

Again, anchor point that's non-certified means that they've gone in there and they said, "We're going to make this as heavy duty as we possibly can," and that's where that whole 5,000 pounds comes into play. You have to really be able to look at something and go, "Can that withstand hanging a pickup truck from it?"

It's easy to look at a piece of structural steel and go, "Yeah, I'd hope it will hold up 5,000 pounds because it's getting ready to hold up a whole freaking building." That's an easier call. Again, when we have anchor points, the biggest thing to remember is, what are we going ... How to say, what are we fastening or what are we mounting or what are we wrapping it around?

Most anchor points require, you have to bolt them on. You may have to weld them on. You may wrap a cross arm strap around something. Making that call is maybe easier in beefier situations but let's say that we're in a place where there's no way in hell that structurally, we are going to get something that is rated to 5,000 pounds. Then we go into what's called a certified anchor point.

A certified anchor point requires a nerd and a lot of math and the reason being is, we have to figure out, well what kind of fall arresting forces are we going to create? Then we have to get that to a safety factor of two. Realistically, if I'm a 300 pound guy and I fall and we can figure out how to keep my fall arresting forces to under 600 pounds, theoretically we could design a system or an anchor point that is just double that amount, so 300 too 400 to 1,200.

Then we have to have somebody that comes and typically, it's going to be a structural engineer that goes, "Yeah, that wood frame and that dry wall ..." You know, whatever you're using, I mean, that's probably not the best example but whatever the substrate is, is adequate. Let's go, if we're working around concrete, well it's really easy if it's a fresh pour and you walk up to somebody and you go, "Is that Portman grade cement?"

They go, "Yeah," and you go, "What PSI is it?" They give you all the numbers and you're sitting there and you're a competent person. You're looking at the manual and it goes, you need this. You're working through the check off, well technically, a competent person could do that. Competent means that they've gone through a couple ... Usually a competent person in fall protection, has been to a 4A class.

Where they've kind of cradled the grave and, here's how you look at it and here's how you read all the books.

Fred:

Yeah. Here's a test, sign off on it.

Dave:

Yeah. To make sure you were awake for everything, other than you know, at least breakfast passed. Then we get into that whole certified anchor point. We may have to bring in a structural engineer. We may have to then have a certified welder that comes in because maybe we have to weld that anchor point in place.

I'm deemed competent and I say, "I've got this regular thing that I want to use, anchor point that I bought from the manufacturer, says it's rated to 5,000 pounds but it says you need to have a certified welder. Well we just changed the game. There's realistically, I wish it was not ... I mean, it's chummy, nasty water, with pieces and stuff floating all in it.

Fred:

Got you. I knew you brought up the concrete, freshly poured, concrete that you can read in the bag but then most of the time, it was poured in 1976.

Dave:

Oh, I mean, I've been in some situations where people are going, "Well, that concrete's pretty good." You will go, "Well okay, wasn't this poured in 1928? I'm not saying that it's not probably pretty good concrete because it's still here but how do you know that it doesn't have ... What's behind it?" You'll always have that stuff where ...

Then you go behind it and you look and you're like, "This is deteriorating. Look at this and you're getting ready to use a plunger style in this." Sometimes, you really got to think through everything. Again, substrates or whatever surface you're putting in, if it's not fresh, you really need to do your due diligence and really look and see, is it what you think it is?

Fred:

Getting back to our dumb ass of the week, he believed in an urban legend, so I made a little short list here, "My favorite urban legends," like our dumb arse of the week, which his name was ... What was it name? Ryan probably believed these. The first one, is something that I'm pretty sure I believe for at least the longest time, is that Walt Disney was frozen.

Dave:

I still think he is.

Fred:

Supposedly he was buried in 1960 something, 1966, I think I looked it up or was buried or cremated in 1966.

Dave:

Yeah but I mean, media lie a lot. I'm still the guy that sits there and watched the Big Foot shit. I swear, I don't know what it is about, I think it's just your brain loves the whole mystery of it.

You're sitting there going, "Okay, I really got to go to the bathroom but I'm going to sit here because this dumb ass just let out a Big Foot call and they're got heat sinking cameras and I'm pretty sure the first time we're going to see him is, right when they come back. If I'm not sitting here, I'm going to miss it all."

Fred:

Yeah. You got to check the source on a lot of those. How come nobody super intelligent ever finds Big Foot? They're never visited by an alien. It's always somebody that's like, "I saw a beam of light. It came in my window, I ran out." They're like high on [BCP 00:38:53] when they're talking to you about it.

Dave:

Well yeah.

Fred:

The second one, which is also something that I believe, is the kidney heist.

Dave:

That's believable too.

Fred:

It's believable but supposedly it's not true. It's never happened before, that somebody wakes up. They wake up in a bath with ice and then- [crosstalk 00:39:08]

Dave:

... or something like that.

Fred:

That is multiple times. The kidney heist is the one that I thought was going to happen to me. When I was 18 years old, it was the day after Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving weekend. When you go out on one of those serious benders, when you're back at home and all your high school friends are there. You have a serious bender, right around Thanksgiving, maybe usually the Wednesday before.

Dave:

No, usually it's the Wednesday before.

Fred:

The Wednesday before. I woke up on my buddy's couch the next morning. This may have been ... I was walking to the car, hung over.

Dave:

Didn't know where you were at.

Fred:

Barely knew where I was at. I was definitely in Davenport, kind of the sketchy part of town. I walked over and this Cadillac Escalade pulled up. It just kept pulling up right by a car. At 18 years old, I was a fresh face. 18, I looked like I was 15 and there was about a 45 year old woman, pulled up, rolled down the window. She goes, "Hey." I was like, "Hey."

She goes, "Hey, you're cute." It's like, "I'm cute?" She goes, "Yeah." She's like, "What are you doing?" I was like, "I'm just getting in the car. I'm going to go see my girlfriend." She was like, "Well, why don't you come back to the hotel and say hello?" I was like, "What? Do you want me to ..." Some a little bit milfy woman in a Cadillac Escalade, "Why don't you come back to the hotel and say hello?"

Like,  No, I got to get going." She said, "Well, you could make a little bit of extra money." I was thinking, "What?" [crosstalk 00:40:37] 15 year old prostitute.

Dave:

The whole time you're thinking she wants to harvest one of your-

Fred:

No, that's what I thought later. Later, I was going to walk in through the door, all of the sudden, get clubbed over the back of the head. Wake up in a bathtub and full of ice.

Dave:

Yeah. [crosstalk 00:40:46] going to end up in some kind of weird porno film or something.

Fred:

Yeah, so bizarre situation. Anyways, that was the second one. Paul is dead, Paul McCartney dead in the '70s and they found a look alike and they replaced it with a look alike that went on to be in the Beetles forever. It's a pretty quality one but I think he's still alive.

My favorite one as a kid, I was a big WWF wrestling fan and it was when the Ultimate Warrior died and had a steroid overdoes. They replaced him with his brother and then his brother became the Ultimate Warrior from then on out. Supposedly, that didn't actually happen.

Dave:

For some reason, every time I see Randy "Macho Man" Savage-

Fred:

You know, he's dead.

Dave:

What's that?

Fred:

He's dead.

Dave:

Yeah but him or the Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan and what was the little circus dude that would always hold the mic? [crosstalk 00:41:44] No, that would hold the mic and interview everybody. He was bold with ...

Fred:

Gorilla Monsoon.

Dave:

No, he would always wear the suite and he was always interviewing everybody. He'd be standing there with the mic, hold it up to ...

Fred:

Mean Jean Okerlund.

Dave:

There you go. OBG's standing there and he's got these two. You could just tell that they just, just didn't ... Fresh meat all of whatever, testosterone and ...

Fred:

Bright red. [crosstalk 00:42:12] "Let me tell you something brother." Yeah. The last one I had down on a list was, that Elvis faked his death and people are still seeing him in coffee shops. Tupac's kind of the modern day one, that people say Tupac's not dead.

Dave:

I don't know.

Fred:

Wasn't it Elvis eating the peanut butter and sandwiches and died on the toilet. Wasn't that always the ...

Dave:

Yeah. I was watching, there's like a show on cable or whatever and they tried to do a ... They call it doing an autopsy but to me, you have to have a body, so they go through a deep dive into the forensic facts or whatever, I was watching one on him.

Fred:

On Elvis?

Dave:

Watched one on him. Watched one on Jimmy Hendrix and just watching how they think all these people died and it's like, "Well, that wasn't really much different than what we already knew." It was just a bunch of drugs and alcohol. Yeah, he choked to death or whatever.

Fred:

It's kind of exactly what I thought. I forgot when we were talking about the whole steel toe thing, there was an episode where I was doing a little bit of research on it. There's a MythBusters on it and they proved it to not be true. I did forget to mention that, when we were talking about [crosstalk 00:43:27] MythBusters.

Dave:

That's scientific fact or as close as you can get in this day and age to where ...

Fred:

Those guys?

Dave:

Yeah. They usually do a pretty good job of trying to test it out.

Fred:

Earlier, I felt like we did a nice job, digging into the meter, why we designed another website for our customers here but if you're wondering about anything else that we might have missed in regards to that, please tell us about it on the Quad City Safety blog comments or reach out to us on any social media, on our Twitter or on our Facebook or on our LinkedIn page and we'll address that, either on the show or we'll send you something back directly.

Anyways, be sure, hold out for next week when we're back with another episode. I just lost complete track of what I was thinking about. Usually, I don't do that.

Dave:

Well, you just would cut off right there.

Fred:

I went white over my face. If you need some practical safety advice or tips, you can definitely visit us on quadcitysafety.com. It's a really good place to explore the ins and out of all things safety related. Thank you guys very much for listening. Until next time, you all come back. Safety's got no quitting time. Thanks.

Outro:

Thanks for listening in to Dave & Bacon's Safety Tales, brought to you by Quad City Safety. Send us your questions on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter @quadcitysafety #safetytales. Or email them to Fred at quadcitysafety.com. He's the guy keeping this mess of a show in line. If you liked the show, please rate and review us on iTunes. It's a kick arse way to show that you care about safety.