Safety, by default, is the practice of certain protocol we all follow in the face of a job: personal protective equipment, designated danger zones and even environmentally safe practices. Safety practices make us aware of our surroundings, promote awareness of inherent concerns in our industry and educate us on how to prepare for hazardous encounters. Without safety practices, the very value of and respect for human life would be negligible at best. For the worker, the risk is clear: temporary or permanent disability, affecting quality of life. On top of that, the worker could also accumulate lost wages and out-of-pocket expenses. For the employer, business productivity decreases as a result of the absent worker, and money is consumed through increased insurance premiums and additional costs to train a replacement worker. Therefore, both parties have incentive to implement safety as a requirement, an enforced practice, a "no option" mandate.
But how safe is "safety"? Let's look closer at the hands-free surge in our water blasting industry today. Hands-free, by intent, is an absolute solution to removing the end-user from potential injury by high-pressure water. Take the tool out of his hand, and the "potential of injury" is removed.
This notion echoes the old cliché, "You can't see the forest through the trees." As a mandate, "hands-free" certainly reduces risk to the operator, specifically in flex lancing areas. No hands on the lance, removal from the blast zone, no over-travel on withdrawal, no cuts from leaks or bursts of fatigued flex lance -- end of story. Or is it?
Consider a live lance fed in and out of a tube and controlled by means of a mechanized hose-feeding device. Tools exist in the market today that perform this task in a variety of ways and certainly take the lance out of the operator's hands. Manufacturers have made this a "practice of safety" for years. Unfortunately, this practice has ignored the presence of high pressures in non-focused areas. Current practice accepts the lance, energized with high-pressure water, to lay randomly about the work area uncontrolled, uncontained and unrestricted -- unnoticed by the operator as he focuses on the task at hand. These chaotic conditions allow for the hose to meander about the operator, potentially entangling everything in the work area. Of course, common safety practice is to incorporate another worker to manually control the flow of the live hose in its desired path -- at risk of holding the high-pressure lance in his hand, thus recreating the same hazard. Remarkable! The forest continues as this environment increases the risk of slips, trips and falls.
Statistics indicate:
⢠15 percent of all accidental deaths in the workplace are caused by slips, trips and falls (OSHA).
⢠$70 billion estimated annual cost of the worker's compensation and medical bills are associated with slips, trips and falls (National Safety Council).
⢠33 percent of all work injuries result from slips, trips and falls -- the single most common injury (Health and Safety Executive).
The quest begins to find a safe solution that takes the operator out of harm's way: away from high-pressure water hoses completely, from pneumatic, hydraulic and electrical lines, even from slips, trips and falls.
So what is the solution? A feasible approach is incorporating new technology into a market that has been viewed as stagnant in product evolution. Various steps have been made for the restriction of high-pressure hoses: hose-feeding devices that both internally contain and feed the flex lances, and hose containment reels that accompany existing hose feeders that currently do not offer containment. Mobile technology has been applied for an industry- focused wireless control to provide a seamless solution for slips, trips and falls by eliminating communication lines from operator to tool and by moving the operator to a safe distance away from high-pressure water. With the encouraged integration of these solutions across the board, we can once and for all resolve the issue of slips, trips and falls for the operator.
Content used with permission from WJTA-IMCA.
For more information, contact Terry Gromes Jr. at tgromesjr@terydon.com or visit www.terydon.com.
