Refusing Unsafe Work Conditions

It's always difficult trying to explain to someone how to tactfully refuse to do something. It can be even more challenging trying to explain when they need to refuse and when they're just being a pain in the ass about it. Since it's bleeped-out, this would be good at the workplace.

There Really Are No Accidents

Just to make Prof. Raynor happy: There Really Are No Accidents. These are from the Canadian WSIB (workplace safety & insurance board). I've posted them separately. This is the first one of the series I saw, immediately following Gabelstapelfahrer Klaus. Interesting comparison.

There Really Are No Accidents

Just to make Prof. Raynor happy: There Really Are No Accidents. These are from the Canadian WSIB (workplace safety & insurance board). I've posted them separately.

There Really Are No Accidents

Just to make Prof. Raynor happy: There Really Are No Accidents. These are from the Canadian WSIB (workplace safety & insurance board). I've posted them separately.

There Really Are No Accidents

Just to make Prof. Raynor happy: There Really Are No Accidents. These are from the Canadian WSIB (workplace safety & insurance board). I've posted them separately.

PIT Safety Video

Forklift truck driving safety video. German with English subtitles.

New Mascot for Health

The 6-foot-11, walking urine vial is being unveiled today as the mascot of HealthPartners' new website and advertising campaign.

Pop Culture PPE

If Bob the Builder can do it, so can you. Every time I've seen Bob the Builder (quite often with a 3 yr. old son), he always wears PPE. He was going at it with a jack hammer wearing: ear muffs, a hard hat, work gloves, and safety glasses. Working on a scaffold? Wearing a fall-harness. Brain wash 'em young to be safe. There is a balance in the workplace between 'safety' and 'practicality'. Hence having an hierarchy of controls, rather than just a monolith. This is particularly noticeable in Hollywood. In Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne is in the process of building the first Bat Suit, spray painting it Menacing Black. What is he wearing? Some short-sleeved shirt to make sure you notice Christian Bale has nice arms. But, he's wearing a nice half-face respirator. The filter cartridges of which do look like 3M's organic vapor/HCl/etc. No safety glasses, though. I suppose after paying an actor millions of dollars for his image, you need to make sure you get your money's worth. It's amusing. They make the effort to portray a character doing something that is "safe", when pretty much the only folks who would notice are the auto body repair mechanics or industrial hygenists. But Safety only gets a bit-part, a walk-on role, only enough so that ... what? Am I supposed to think Bruce Wayne is 'being safe'? Or did some costume director see some set design gal wearing a respirator while assembling and painting the sets, and think "... ooooh .... that looks kinda menacing?" And now Bat Man is wearing it because it fits in with the 'high tech' glamor going on in those scenes? And yet, only a few scenes later, while using a grinding wheel, he's got safety glasses on. What's the moral? Who cares why they're doing the right thing.

We're #3

Move to Minnesota: 1 in 3 high school students binge drinks 1 in 6 people have driven drunk in the past year Top 5 % adults reporting haven driven while drunk: Wisconsin (> 25%) North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota What's interesting class? 20% of the population of South Dakota is one hell of a lot less people than 20% of the California population.

Arsenic

The continuing saga of the Philip's Neighborhood. Minnesota health officials say they could begin recruiting participants next month for the Minneapolis Children's Arsenic Study. The study will measure arsenic levels in the bodies of 100 volunteer children who live in the south Minneapolis neighborhoods near the site of an old pesticide plant.