Filling the Gaps in Eye Protection: Safety Tales Episode 3

Intro:

Dave & Bacon 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:

Welcome to Dave & Bacon Safety Tales episode four. We're back again. They said it'd never last-

Fred:

They said it would never last four episodes but we did it. So, once again, I'm Fred Radunzel with Quad City Safety and I'm here with Dave White here to spread some safety knowledge and tell another safety tale.

Dave:

We're here to have a good time and hopefully at least get people to think about safety.

Fred:

Yup. So, okay, here we go. This episode, we're gonna talk about eye protection. So-

Dave:

That's one of the things we're gonna talk about.

Fred:

Yeah, we'll see. We might get to some other stuff, but we'll start with eye protection. Now, I handed this over to Dave and told him we were gonna talk about eye protection and he sent me a full paragraph about somethin' that he was gonna want and I think he mighta been on Ambien when he was talkin' about it because I can barely figure out what we're tryna talk about. So let's-

Dave:

Yeah, it was late one night when-

Fred:

Let's dissect this. Alright, so "car dealership." Now he had a sign, "Almost a butt-load of eye injuries, just one short." What do you think you were tryna say there?

Dave:

So, basically that goes back to local insurance guy gives me to y'all and he's talkin' about a car dealership and he's tryna renew 'em and the problem is any time you go up for renewal, everybody's gonna obviously look at the incidents that they have and in and around what they were doin' was a load of eye injuries to the point where this renewal's not gonna happen. Carrier comes back and says, "You need to get this under control." So, kinda doin' a walk-through and, you know, it was that classic case of somebody bein' cheap. As we go through it and start lookin', it's like, "Wow." A bunch of 75 visitor specs sittin' all over the place and walk completely through the shop, which you've got your mechanics, you've got your guys that are doin' your bed ladders and paintin' stuff and welding and brazing, and everybody's just standin' around just nothin' on.

Fred:

Plus you got the boss that walks into there while they're actually doin' all the work.

Dave:

Yeah, and there's a sign right when you walk in there it's like, "Eye protection." So, you're like, "Okay." So, we walk in there and there's obviously a need because, again, somebody did it but it's that classic example of, "You know, we're gonna go ahead and say that there's a hazard and then we're gonna try to pretty much put the cheapest thing that we think might get us in and around it but it's not gonna do anything for the fact that, hey, there's a lot of different hazards and we're not gonna deal with any of 'em. We're just gonna play pretend that we're dealin' with this."

And the whole thing is, when we look at safety, a lot of times people try to cheapen everything up and years ago ... I believe it's a study that basically looks at the amount of money spent on safety. And they did it ... It was the National Safety Congress did this study and anybody wants it, I'll look it up and send it to 'em. But the study basically went over time and said, "Let's look at what our payback is on safety 'cause there's a payback on any safety. So, if we train or we provide personal protective equipment or whatever we do, if we're not killing and maiming and driving up insurance costs and first aid cost and just the fact that if you hurt somebody you have to train somebody else to do the job and then we look at lost productivity."

All the costs that are not directly measurable to it, if we spend a dollar usually you're payback's gonna be almost three dollars for every dollar that you spend. But still, a lot of employers approach it from the standpoint of "Let's get to the letter of compliance, no more. We're gonna read compliance ..." You know, just like that whole thing of ... Yeah, they had 75 of sick visitor specs, but they weren't dealing with anything that was going on.

So, you had people that were gettin' chemicals in the eyes, gettin' particulate in the eyes. Hell, they were brazing with, you know, probably had some sunglasses on or something like that. Just some gray-shaded stuff or whatever. But the whole point that I came away with is the problem is they've said, "Hey, wear eye protection here." And all they supplied people with was stuff that nobody would wear.

It's that classic example, Fred, of where ... What's the best PPE? Well, it's the stuff that you'll buy that people will wear. So if we need to put 'em in Chicago Bears hardhats to get 'em to wear a hardhat, are we gonna argue over a dollar or two? Or are we going to go ahead and spend that dollar or two and get, you know, three or six dollars back, depending on what that payoff is?

But the-

Fred:

Or kinda, maybe in the circumstance that you're talkin' about, it's getting them the right thing for the job that they're doin'. You were bringin' up the grinders and the painters. One guy might need a goggle, or one guy might need this wider safety glass, or a female might need a more narrow safety glass.

Dave:

Well, yeah, you get into, whether it's ethniticities or whatever. You know, there's different face types-

Fred:

Wait, wait, what was that?

Dave:

Ethniticities.

Fred:

Ethnicities?

Dave:

Yeah, there you go. Yeah. So, long and short of it is, not everything's gonna fit everybody the same way, so face types ... I mean, I got a head on me like a bastard alley cat so obviously the glass that's gonna fit me and I'm gonna prefer to wear is not gonna be the one that, let's say, a more skinny swelt guy with kind of like a little baby beard, like yourself-

Fred:

Yeah, but I got a big dome. I got a big dome.

Dave:

Well, yeah, you do kinda have a big head on you.

Fred:

Yeah, it's the Irish in me, I think.

Dave:

Right on. But again, it's making sure that when we go to pick stuff out, it's stuff that, number one, matches the hazard. So if we have somethin' that ... Again, we've done a risk assessment and we've paid attention to what's goin' on around us. Does what we're wearing match that? So, we don't need to weld in sunglasses. If we're around chemicals, what are you ... Hell, let's go buy a goggle. Let's compliment the glass with the goggle. You know, whatever that is, but it's matching it and it's spending maybe a little bit more so it's something that people want to wear.

Let's say it's a little fashion. Let's make it comfortable. Make it somethin' that makes you not look like a Buddy Holly reject tryin' to wear it.

Fred:

Yeah, I think you had mentioned, you have five different people, they're doin' five different jobs and they're all wearin' the same thing. That should be somethin' that someone walks in and says, "Aha, we realize-

Dave:

It's an aha moment!

Fred:

"We realize this guy's doin' this, this guy's doin that but ..." It's like, "Well we addressed eye injuries because we got everyone wearin' safety glasses now. We put the sign up that says safety glasses are required-"

Dave:

"So we should be good."

Fred:

"So we should be good to go." I think you had written, "We killed the phantom injury monster that's been takin' a shit on their safety bonus only to be thrashed by the real stuff hittin' the fan with somethin' that should have already been known."

Dave:

Yeah, and some of it can be ... Unfortunately, from now until the end a time, there's gonna have to be the safety police. And again, goin' back to ... I walk through a place that mandated, "Thou shalt wear safety glasses," and no one was wearing them. So there was nobody .. Not that everything should be enforcement, but somebody's gotta pay attention. And again, in past episodes we've talked about, you know, look out for your buddy. If he's doin' somethin' that's stupid or somethin' that he shouldn't be doin' let's love our brother. Let's love each other as a neighbor.

Fred:

Right. So, that's not the story technically for this week, but what was the resolution of when you went in there with the insurance company, or with whoever the client was, and they needed to get insurance? What-

Dave:

They were slayin' this phantom monster and it was-

Fred:

By the way, we need to create a phantom injury monster.

Dave:

Right.

Fred:

That sounds like a good logo or good mascot to go along with Bacon.

Dave:

I like it. Eatin' safety crosses and everything, that'd be pretty interesting.

Fred:

He can do it all. So what was the resolution?

Dave:

Well, the resolution was literally, I think, we ended up with four different products, nothin' that cost more than seven or eight bucks per person. And I wanted to say that their premiums the next year renewed at about 20,000 less. So, for ... That's pretty ... If I could get a $20,000 payback on a couple boxes of some decent safety glasses, come on. I don't know why you wouldn't do that.

It was maybe a little bit deeper than that because part of it was [inaudible 00:10:27], so we gotta beat the drum, we gotta put up the tent, have the little safety revival, get everybody readin' the good book of safety and doin' the right thing. But my point is that there's a payback. When we talk about safety, there's a right thing to do and there's a payoff for that, meaning we get to go home. If we're safe, typically that's gonna safeguard profitability of whoever the employer is, which if everybody's fair and taxes are right, we're all gonna allegedly share in the wealth. But at the end a the day, everybody should profit either from their safety and health or possibly financially depending on where you're at in the equation, who you're at, whether it's a bonus for doin' the right thing.

I'm not a big proponent of that. I think that everybody should do that fundamentally without, you know, "If we go ten years without a lost time accident, we're gonna give you a coat with somethin' on it that says you got a coat 'cause you're safe."

Fred:

Yeah, but I mean, I think you can use things like that probably to promote a safety culture-

Dave:

Yeah-

Fred:

We're gonna have a barbecue or we're gonna give you brats on Friday-

Dave:

[crosstalk 00:11:50] That commission is always a good thing.

Fred:

Okay. Well, I think now we can get on to this week's safety tale. So, Dave what's the story for this week?

Dave:

You know, the safety tale goes back to ... Man, when I was a kid, and it wasn't very long ago, the stupidest stuff that we did and the injuries that we ended up with. One is, I can remember a bunch a Whites and Masons runnin' around North Tennessee raisin' ten shades a hell-

Fred:

And easy. You're last name's White.

Dave:

Yes.

Fred:

Talkin' about Kentucky and you're like, "The Whites and the Masons," I'm like, "What are we talkin' about here?"

Dave:

Right. But, you know, we would have bottle rocket wars. So bottle rocket wars included a hack saw, lawn furniture, regular bottle rockets, whistler bottle rockets, and basically we would cut up lawn chairs and that became your launching mechanism. 'Cause after you burnt your hand enough tryna hold on and throw these things, you go, "There's gotta be better ways to aim these things," which ended up being, guess what? Tubular aluminum from all the lawn chairs that some overweight person had gone through. You remember those old folding lawn chairs that kinda had the straps across 'em or whatever?

Fred:

The woven-

Dave:

Yes.

Fred:

With the straps.

Dave:

Usually like a green color or whatever-

Fred:

Yeah that, on a hot day, would just get baked into your legs and you'd have the colors on the bottom of your thighs.

Dave:

Right. And you know, usually by the time they're 15 seasons old and dry rotted, some fat ass would go through one of 'em and-

Fred:

Break through, and everyone'd have a good ole laugh.

Dave:

Yeah. So, those would be the ones that we would end up taking the hack saw and kinda cuttin' up and modifyin', probably with a little duct tape and probably somethin' to make the butt of a gun and then we would shoot it from there. Well, what did we do? We shot 'em at each other 'cause that made the most sense. We were havin' bottle rocket wars. And let's just say if you take a bottle rocket to the eye, not a real good situation.

Fred:

Yeah, it'll ruin your day.

Dave:

And that was kinda the thing that we did and it wasn't ... Again, it was just bein' an ignorant kid but it goes into the fact that every day in just about any work environment that's out there, people are doin' pretty much the same thing as we were, but we were kids and we were ignorant and it was a long time ago.

Fred:

Gotcha. How 'bout ... You got anything about a pool?

Dave:

Yeah, I think I mentioned that in an earlier episode, but-

Fred:

Oh, that's right. Yeah, you did talk about that.

Dave:

Yeah, kinda spilt chlorine and, again, not havin' any eye protection. That was kind of one that I coulda done without because kinda lost my vision for a week or two there. Kids had a great time, but you know I did end up with a little bit a liquid chlorine in the eye.

Fred:

That's right, you crossed over when we were talkin' eye wash.

Dave:

Yes, no doubt.

Fred:

How 'bout ... I think you mentioned somethin' about things that were contagious.

Dave:

Everybody all knows when you sit there and you talk about ... We will refer to it as a viral conjunctivitis aka pink eye. Maybe somebody didn't wash their hands after, you know, throwin' down the duce, everybody's ended up with a little bit a pink eye [crosstalk 00:15:47].

Fred:

Little duce toss.

Dave:

Yeah, that's where everybody ... We'll bring hygiene into safety. So, sometimes when we're talkin' about eye injuries, sometimes it's stuff that we get on our hands and we put in our eyes and we may need to go to the doctor and get some medical attention. Because viral conjunctivitis's pretty contagious and it's pretty much spread from, you know, got it on my hands, kinda touch my face touch my eyes.

Put it this way, not a good thing because you wake up that next mornin' and you're like, "Man, if I could just get a warm rag on my eye. I'm gonna be able to open it up, it's gonna kinda release all the puss and juice out there, so-

Fred:

Ew, I don't remember wearin' a mask to bed.

Dave:

Well, they wake up-

Fred:

It's cobwebs over my eyes.

Dave:

Yeah, and then you kinda wake up and you have that burning ... Just not good. Not good.

Fred:

Well, yeah. I bet people decided to tune in, they didn't think that they were gonna be listenin' to pink eye talk but that's where Bacon took us on this Dave & Bacon Safety Tales.

Dave:

Well, bacon's a pig. Bacon's a nasty animal. Tastes good, not the cleanest guy.

Fred:

No, yeah. That'll get a little bit muddy to say the least. So-

Dave:

You know pigs don't have sweat glands?

Fred:

I feel like I knew that, kinda. Do most animals have sweat glands? Never touched a sweaty animal.

Dave:

That's how they moderate temperature.

Fred:

But isn't that ... Like, a dog sweats by panting, right?

Dave:

Yeah, yeah you have the tongue, so you gettin' that kinda ... So, every animal moderates temperature in different ways. Not sure why we went there but you know, pigs are nasty animals.

Fred:

You know anything else about animal temperatures? What else do you got for me, anything?

Dave:

Oh, there's all kinds. I won't go there right now.

Fred:

Alright, well-

Dave:

It'll just get creepier, I think we've already ... Viral conjunctivitis is already kinda-

Fred:

Yeah, this one might be gettin' away from us. So, main point of what your story is possibly, like, why your economy glasses are not doin' the job? What ... I guess let's talk about some different eye risks on the job. So, we got chemical, puncture, debris ...

Dave:

Yup.

Fred:

What else do you think, anything?

Dave:

You can think about the basic ones and that's where it gets easy. But let's say we're walkin' through a shop. Everybody's heard that arc pop on a welder and 100 percent of the time, anybody that hears it wants to directly turn around and look, "What the hell just happened there?" And you find yourself lookin' at some radiation that's gonna come burn that retina. So, you kinda gotta get outta the box and go, "Is there a potential that somebody's usin' lasers? Is there a chance for arc flash?"

So, let's say that we're in an electrical hazard situation workin' in the panel and all the sudden, if there's an electrical arc, we're basically starrin' at the sun because copper heated up to some cataclysmic degree and popped and we need to get that thermal exposure as well as the radiation exposure away from burning our retinas. 'Cause once we burn that retina, well, we got an incident because most likely we're gonna have to go to the doctor and you end up on an antibiotic and it only kinda treats it, and then you end up like me. In my middle-age-ness, I'm walkin' around, and every time I look, I'm chasin' somethin'. I'm like, "What is that? Oh, that's one of my floaters that I have."

So, we all kinda have these little things that we see in our eyes that are kinda floatin' around where we've kinda damaged our vision over time. Some of 'em can even be, you know-

Fred:

Almost like a little bubble [crosstalk 00:20:06] bubble.

Dave:

Or it just doesn't look right, this little thing. Then as you try to look at it, you chase it off the path.

Fred:

Yeah, I feel like occasionally, I'll almost feel like there's little bubbles in my eyes that I'm pushing on my eye lids to pop the bubbles, but they just never go away. I'm not exactly sure what that is, but I would say-

Dave:

Probably should see somebody for that.

Fred:

Ah, I mean, I probably needed glasses for the past 15 years but I'm not goin' that route. So, I guess there probably are some other hazards when we're talkin' different shades that these glasses come in, the different lenses. Whether it's just a regular clear lens, or maybe we need a lens that doesn't fog so that we can do the job correctly, or a shaded lens or an indoor-outdoor lens that might work for both. So, really we gotta make sure that we're using the right eye protection so that you can go home and see your family, right?

Dave:

Well, I would like to continue to see my family. They're pretty important to me. Even though sometimes, I wanna kill 'em.

Fred:

Gotcha. How 'bout differences in glasses, goggles, face shields, side shields?

Dave:

Well, again, it gets into payin' attention to what's goin' on around us. Side shields ... Obviously, if you're lookin' straight at it and somethin's comin' at ya, safety glass is good. If you have people ... Let's say Elroy beside you's workin' and he's workin' on a grinder or somethin' and can throw somethin' at you, side shields can become important.

Getting into ... They even, Pyramex and some other people have some light shades. So usually, if you're cutting and brazing, shade three or shade five. Some of 'em, if you're in a manufacturing situation or are around a construction environment where people are welding and you just need kind of a base layer of protection, they have some lower shades to ... There's a shade two, so it's not like you're walkin' around in the dark but if you happen to be like me and they pop that arc and you wanna turn around and look at it, at least you're not killin' yourself there.

There's different mixes of glasses that have gaskets that are for that particulate matter. Also, getting into ... Again, when we start talkin' about face shields ... auto darkening lenses for welding situations. Face shields that, some of 'em, may be more geared towards, let's say, high impact. So, if it's somethin' that, you know, like a basic PETG lens for your standard head gear or whatever that you're poppin' in, let's say that you have a higher impact situation. Maybe you need to go to a lexan or a polycarbonate. Maybe you find that people are scratchin' up lenses and you might need to go to an acetate, or you have a higher chemical concentration you're around where you'd like to wear a face shield accompanied by a safety glass.

That's one that's often overlooked is a lot a people go, "I'm wearin' a face shield." Well, that's the second line a defense. You should always wear the safety glass first and if you have a safety glass and you still need to keep from bouncing stuff off your face, that's the better way to think about a face shield is shielding thy face not shielding thy eye.

Fred:

Yeah, I would say that that one's 90 percent a the time overlooked. If someone's wearin' a face shield, they're not wearin' eye protection.

Dave:

They seem to think that they're fine, and that's not how the standards look at it, and that's not how we should look at it either. We should use a face shield to protect thy face, we should use eye protection, i.e. safety glasses, to protect thy eye.

Fred:

Okay. Now, for those of us that think we might be usin' the right safety wear, we probably need to take another look at it. With technology that's come out, with a lot of the foam-back sealed safety glasses, kinda goin' that direction might be your best bet.

Dave:

Yeah, and probably the biggest problem that people are havin' also is when we start lookin' at glasses, goggles, face shields is people take 'em off, and it's like, "Why are you taking that off?" And one of the things that keeps comin' up a lot a times is fogging. So, we have to look at fogging, because fogging can be fairly complex in itself in that, am I kind of ... Me, who's kind of a overweight guy that kinda just gets breathin' heavy and causes fogging that way, meaning my head heats up and I'm causing the glasses to fog. Am I coming from a cold to hot or hot to cold situation that causes that to fog?

Well, number one there's technology. It's 2017, so there's after market wipes that you can wipe down the glass. There are treatments that'll come on the glass, there's even glasses that have, whether it's Uvex or 3M or Radians now have those called nano-technologies that are impregnated into the polycarbonate that give them, typically, some level of inherence of fog resistance.

I won't say fog-proof. I'll stick by resistance there.

Fred:

I know ... Not to switch gears on you, but are you aware of ... So, windows like windows in your house, the fogging becomes an issue that people start complainin' about. I know, I worked at a Lowe's for, really, a couple years and that was one of the things that the window manufacturer's, like a Pella or like an Anderson or somebody like that, would tell ya was that ... It's completely unrelated, so this is just Fred's tip for the day. If your windows are fogging up between the panes, that means that there's some sort of leak in the window. So, somewhere in between the window pane, the window's failing. So, like your insulation value, somewhere there's a leak.

Dave:

Well, they're typically filled with argon or some kinda-

Fred:

Well, you shouldn't see condensation from argon.

Dave:

No, but I'm sayin' typically in a window like that that's gonna be a failure there. I mean, there are some dual lens safety glasses. Like, Pyramex makes an I-Force which is kind of that dual lens technology that does very good in anti-fog situat ... How to say, it provides anti-fog when we're goin' form a temperature change because there is kinda that R value between the two lenses.

Fred:

Yeah, there's some sort of venting. But also the thing that they would tell you is if on the inside of your window, that's where the moisture is happening and you can actually touch it and touch the moisture, that had to do more with the humidity inside of your house.

Dave:

Oh, there's no doubt about it. And that's kinda where we were talkin' about me bein' the chubby guy is that can be the situation.

Fred:

So, a lot of people are blaming their glasses fogging up where it might have more of an issue with the inside of your house having too much humidity putting that-

Dave:

Is that, you can use that now? "It's the inside of my house is [crosstalk 00:28:15].

Fred:

The inside of this house has got a little too much humidity on it so my glasses are dripping sweat down there.

Dave:

Well, fall distance is ... the biggest thing you have to pay attention to is we are trying to go ... We know that we're going to fall, so when we look at fall distances, we have to go, "Well, how tall am I? How long is the lanyard or when is it going to a rest. If there's a shock pack, how far is that going to expand? Is there going to be ... Let's say we're on a lifeline, we could deal with stretch. If we are in a harness, the harness is going to basically seize up of gain space because we don't wear it completely tight against the skin. So, we have that and the fact that we wanna have a little bit of a factor before we actually hit the ground.

So, the biggest problem is a lot of times, you'll see people that are, you know, five or six feet off the ground and they have this lanyard plug and they're ... One of the reps that I travel with a lot a times, he talked about how he was a siding guy and they would use the old fashioned, "Throw the rope over the roof" and they would kinda tie off on these lifelines and use a rope 'round 'em with a six foot shock-absorbing lanyard and they'd be working about three or four foot off the ground. But they felt like they were bein' compliant because they were usin' fall protection, but that's one where they erred on the fact that they didn't really do a fall calculation and one would tell them if they have a six foot shock-absorbing lanyard and they're nine foot off the ground and they have a six ... Let's go with a smaller person. We have a guy named Trey that's maybe, like, five foot five and he goes to fall-

Fred:

Maybe five two, on a good day. With lifts in his shoes, maybe five five.

Dave:

Yeah, but you add that together and, you know, it doesn't take a mathematician to really realize that that's not enough space. He's probably gonna hit the ground. So again, let's go back through the fall calculations. Number one is length of the lanyard, so we go six foot. We go height of the worker, let's just of six foot just for big round numbers. We're up to 12 foot. We take into the count that there's a shock absorber that's gonna get us another three and a half foot, we put in a safety factor of two. All the sudden we're trendin' the numbers that is right around 19 feet, 18 to 19 feet between where our feet are and where the ground is to keep us from hitting the ground. And at that point in time, when we fall, we're actually only gonna be ... You could probably reach up with a knife and cut 'em down and they'd stumble about a foot and a half, two foot.

But again, that's a misconception. And then if you think, we're almost two stories and we have regular fall protection, what the hell? What's that gonna do? That's where a lot of the personal fall limiters, aka SRLs, those are the little yo-yo guys that have a [inaudible 00:31:56] brake system kinda like a seat belt in 'em that are very useful and can limit those fall distances because instead of that six foot, most a those are gonna lock up less than three foot, depending on ... There's a lot of different types SRLs out there, but again, we don't have a six foot, plus you know, the shock pack nine. So, all the sudden, we could cut seven foot out a that fall distance.

Fred:

Right. Okay, question number two. We had somebody on site kind of complain because, we offer ear plugs, but somebody came in and said, "We need to offer more than one type of ear plug."

Dave:

That's true that you should offer more than one type because, again, it gets into form fittin' function. And some of it can be what we're tryna do with it, but with different ear canals, so somebody may have a smaller ear canal. We may have somebody that's just got big ole' coke can ear-sized things goin' in their head where-

Fred:

You end up with gages?

Dave:

Yeah, I mean, big ones. So, a lot of it is ... It's not one size fits all. Goin' back to when we talked about face types and everything as it relates to safety glasses, there's other issues to where one size does not fit all. So, we need to pay attention that we can go for compliance's sake, which would say, "Put up a sign to only they need to wear it. Give 'em one.

The standard says that you need to kinda give 'em a variety. So, you need to give 'em two to thee choices and you need to make sure that of those two to three choices that they are ones that hit those different ear canal sizes.

Fred:

Okay. Like, would a muff qualify? Like as an alternative-

Dave:

Yeah, theoretically. It's just that that would both be the primary so you need to make sure based on ... A lot a times when you're talkin' about hearing projection verses month. Some months can be lower in our arc so you need to make sure that you pay attention to what decibel rating you're gonna be in and what you're gonna be under and make sure that you're gettin' the protection factor that you need out of that muff.

Fred:

Okay, cool. How 'bout this one, here's the third question. Rumor is that there-

Dave:

Rumor?

Fred:

Yeah, rumor is that there's a new first aid standard out. What's up with that?

Dave:

Yeah, there is. It's a compliance standard tho, so it's not that you have to, have to, have to, have to but you should, you should you could. And the new standard, it used to be that Nancy kinda came out there and said, "Hey, you need to make sure that you have these seven components in your first aid kit" and as long as you do that, man, you're gonna be alright." Well, they really did kinda dress it up a little bit and there's a couple different ways that it's looked at. There's an A and a B now, and the A and the B looks at ... if we don't really have a chance a hurtin' anybody, obviously we don't need ... The same if we had a chance a cuttin' somebody's arm off.

So, when we look at the build of the kit, the build of the kit can be towards more hazardous versus less hazardous. So, if we're just worried about the fact that we're, let's say we're in a restaurant. Hopefully, unless we're Betty Hawn and somebody's flickin' knives or whatever, we don't really have to worry about knocking anybody's appendages off or whatever. We don't need that kit that has the more catastrophic stuff that realistically, when you get to those more harmful environments, you need to look at and go, "Do we maybe need to have a tourniquet? Do we maybe ... What other first aid items do we need to possibly have that's not in our base kit.

The next one comes into where are we storing the kit. So, is it indoor, is it outdoor, do we need to seal it from moisture? So, you have your As and your Bs and then you have a one through four. So, the standard that's come out, again, looks at ... And again, it's a compliance standard that looks at the build of kits based on the hazards that are around, and then where we're storing those kits specifically.

Fred:

Alright, cool. That's good information. I definitely didn't know that first aid is kind of a topic that ... I'm gonna buy the kit. I'm just gonna buy the little kit that's already pre-sold and that's [crosstalk 00:37:12].

Dave:

Everybody, you know ... Is that the worst thing on the planet? No, not really because here's the first thing. Number one is if you guys are out there and you're goin', "Why don't we buy first aid supplies all the time." You need to look at the stop sign and you need to stop and you need to really sit down-

Fred:

Yeah, "Why are we buying so many first aid supplies?"

Dave:

Yeah. And have a talk with yourself, because if you're sittin' there and you're repairing the fact that you've damaged, you put holes in people or whatever reason that you're having to administer first aid to, you probably haven't done the first line of assessing risk and making sure that you've engineered it out. And if you haven't engineered and you haven't put the PPE in, then you got an issue. So, it's a little bit bigger.

If all the sudden you're like, "Damn, who used the last band aid?" Number one, why have you used a 250 count box of band aids?

Fred:

Why is everyone bloody, lookin' like a toddler?

Dave:

Yeah, right.

Fred:

Alright, time for your favorite segment, the dumb ass of the week.

Intro Speaker:

It's the dumb ass of the week.

Fred:

This week, we're gonna call this person Brandon. Brandon seems like a good name, right?

Dave:

Yeah.

Fred:

Well, Brandon's grandmother bought him a brand new pair a safety glasses and these safety glasses that Brandon got are some sweet ass Oakleys, they're white. He's got the slicked back hair, he's got his white Oakley safety glasses, he's lookin' sweet.

Brandon sells siding for a living, so they're in a dusty environment so Brandon puts his cool ass Oakley safety glasses on and he's ready to go work for the day, he's sun's out, guns out. He's ready to go.

So, everything goes great for Brandon today. Tomorrow, Brandon wakes up and it's a cloudy day. So, Brandon goes and he's gonna install his siding with his power nailer but his safety glasses sit on top of his head. So today Brandon's shootin' safety nails, one a those nails backs up on ole Brandon-

Dave:

Safety nails?

Fred:

Whatever, what'd you call them? But-

Dave:

Maybe we should start sellin' safety nails. I like the concept.

Fred:

Safety nails that, they don't injure. They only go into the siding, they don't actually injure someone.

So like a Brad nail, or whatever you put in siding with. The thing backs up, bounces off, and shoots Brandon right in his goddamn eye.

Dave:

And while it's not funny, I mean, people we've ... We've seen this stuff every day.

Fred:

So, what should've Brandon done differently, Dave?

Dave:

Well, I think I heard you say that they were pretty much sunglasses.

Fred:

They're a safety glass but they were shaded so Brandon thought they were sunglasses and he looked cool.

Dave:

Yeah, well he thought he looked cool but, again, when you-

Fred:

They're actually providing Brandon some sort of a function that he didn't realize.

Dave:

[crosstalk 00:40:26] but when you look at, what goes back to one of the rules of thumb is, what is the right safety personal protective equipment, the stuff that people will wear. So if you take your personal protective equipment off to do your job, you have the wrong damn thing on.

Fred:

And if you only have a shaded pair of safety glasses, what are you gonna do when it's not sunny out and you're tryna see stuff? Maybe you need to have a clear pair, Brandon.

Dave:

Brandon, you're a dumb ass.

Fred:

Brandon's a dumb ass this week. Now, we weren't lookin' really for this to become a regular thing, since we did it a couple episodes ago, but there are too many eye songs out there to avoid. There's a million eye songs-

Dave:

What's your favorite?

Fred:

It's gotta be Eye of The Tiger. (Singing)

Dave:

Those guys, those guys.

Fred:

You can't see me now, but Survivor's got me runnin' around our-

Dave:

Oh, he's got Rocky on the brain.

Fred:

Our little podcast studio that we have here. How 'bout Hall and Oats? (Singing)

Dave:

I thought you were too young for that.

Fred:

Oh, my dad is a Hall and Oats guy.

Dave:

Oh, okay. I didn't think that that was self-inflicted right there.

Fred:

Yeah, the ... I don't know which one had the sweet ass mustache. That was Oats, right?

Dave:

I think so, I can't remember. Those guys-

Fred:

Kinda looked like a young Baba Booey. How 'bout Brown Eyed Girl?

Dave:

Well, that's a classic.

Fred:

That's a good one?

Dave:

Again, man, you're goin' old school today.

Fred:

All the eye ones that came into my mind were old school. You've got Frankie Valli. (Singing)

Dave:

You are- You're goin' way backwards man.

Fred:

Anyways, or this one only comes in because the movie Superbad. You know the movie Superbad?

Dave:

Yeah.

Fred:

Alright, so there's a scene in there where he's singin', I guess, Guess Who? (Singing)

Dave:

Oh my goodness.

Fred:

They were at the fair a couple years ago, or somewhere, or it was River Roots downtown that they were there.

Dave:

The Guess Who.

Fred:

The Guess Who, yeah, isn't that what it is?

Dave:

Well, you said "Guess Who," it's The Guess Who.

Fred:

I wasn't saying, "guess who." I'm talkin' 'bout The Guess Who.

Dave:

But they just broke up, I mean, almost like '50s, '70s, '80s-

Fred:

I didn't get past the '80s.

Dave:

Yeah, I was gettin' ready to say.

Fred:

That's for sure. Need-

Dave:

What year were you born?

Fred:

'82.

Dave:

Yeah, I was gettin' ready to say. Wow.

Fred:

So, we need some new eye songs to come out there.

Alright, do you wanna talk any news? I guess you had a conversation earlier this week with the new president of Pure Safety?

Dave:

Yeah, Pure Safety, you know, there's some new digs goin' on and basically Pure Safety is taking over Guardian and Guardian Fall Protection and web devices. So, we're gonna give those guys a shout out and go ... We look forward to seein' where y'all take it, but it sounds like there's gonna be some interesting things that go forward. And just really look for the newness to come out and see, whether it's product innovation or services come out, we're excited to see that happen.

Fred:

Cool. Welp, I think that's about all we got for this week. It's been real, but I guess that's enough for today. That was episode four. Hope you liked the show today and you got at least one little nugget of value out of it. It's at least more valuable than listenin' to the new-

Dave:

Or you could at least laugh and go, "These guys are idiots."

Fred:

Yeah, "These guys are dumb dumbs."

Dave:

We're okay with that, too.

Fred:

There's more value, though, than listenin' to the new Taylor Swift album on your drive, hopefully.

Dave:

Yeah, I was, yesterday when I was in the gym, probably one of the best things I've seen in a while-

Fred:

You in the gym?

Dave:

Yeah, I was actually in the gym, believe it or not.

Fred:

Alright. Now that's breaking news.

Dave:

Sweatin', too [crosstalk 00:44:23]

Fred:

That's breaking news.

Dave:

But, it says, "Every time you don't re-rack your weights, Brandon," or what's his name, Bieber-

Fred:

Justin Bieber?

Dave:

"Justin Bieber makes a new song."

Fred:

Ah, see I'm a Bieb fan-

Dave:

I better re-rack my weights, 'cause that's awful.

Fred:

I'm a Biebs fan.

Dave:

Oh my goodness.

Fred:

I don't care who you are, that guy can put out some hits. Alright, well, if you're enjoyin' this, and why wouldn't ya, and you want more, subscribe to the podcast. That way every time a new one drops, it'll show up right on your phone ready for your enjoyment wherever you enjoy podcasts.

Next week, the plan is to talk all things first aid. Or, what's referred to as the, "Oh shit, what happened?" episode. We got a little bit into it-

Dave:

Oh snap!

Fred:

Yup. But, if you can't wait for more of Dave & Bacon Safety Tales, you can visit the Quad City Safety blog. Hit us up on any of our social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, same as everybody else. Please leave us comments, questions, any feedback on eye protection or, really, anything else in the safety realm and we'll address it on the next show. Remember, safety has not quitting time. We will see you for the next episode. Thanks!

Outro:

Thanks for listening in to Dave and 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 @ quadcitysafety.com. He's the guy keeping this mess of a show in line. If you like the show please rate and review us on iTunes. It's a kick-ass way to show that you care about safety.