a view from another site

[jimmyq]

surfing a lawn care site, lots of members and posts per day. There is a thread regarding this picture and a couple others about a client asking the lawn guys to remove the lumber left from a fallen large tree that the city bucked up and left on the lawn... the poster was asking how much to charge. Wonder where the PPE is?

 

[MasterBlaster]

He musta had one of them new-fangled invisible skullbuckets on!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Heck, I climb trees. I'm always reaching!

 

[MasterBlaster]

 

[tophopper]

Rocky,
you dont think a hard hat would help a kickback incident?

 

[NickfromWI]

A hard hat WOULD help in case of kickback directed to the forehead. That's why I DO wear the helmet anytime using a chainsaw.

love
nick

 

[glens]

If the chain's moving and the top of the bar hits your hat, it'll peel it right off your head, don't you think?  I usually remove my lid when everything's done falling and don't sight down the bar when I'm cutting where I don't know exactly were the tip is working.  Eye, ear, and leg protection remain intact.

Glen

 

[jimmyq]

I was thinking the helmet was a good place to find ear muffs and the shield thingie allready attached, but if there was a kickback I suppose it would help too.

I am surprised to get blasted ( perhaps I mistook your tone RJS, I read it as mildly aggressive but I could have been wrong) for suggesting PPE, I made a post a few weeks or whatever back and the first few responses were regarding PPE and my lack of eyewear and bucket. I think its good that it was mentioned, for my own self, I wore my shiny new husquvarna bucket today for the first time, (eyewear is standard when I am working but when I posted up I wasnt working and somehow didnt think about my googles) I was using my pole saw to knock a couple of pear trees about and thought about Erik giving me heck for no lid. So from then on, I am wearing the lid when I should.

Just for the record, it was Butch that first mentioned the helmet in particular, I responded to his post with a bit of humor intended. I only asked where the PPE was.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Sorry. I'm a rabble rouser.



I like the Silky sticker!

 

[jimmyq]

good on ya Butch.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Ain't that guy in DEVO?

 

[jimmyq]

more like a brushdragger caught in the headlights!

 

[MasterBlaster]

I dunno, he don't look so bad!

 

[jimmyq]

Hey! good looking avatar Butch!

 

[tophopper]

Originally posted by glens
If the chain's moving and the top of the bar hits your hat, it'll peel it right off your head, don't you think
Glen

if you say so, it may also be what stops the chain from peeling your scalp off your head

ANSI 4.2.2- workers engaged in arboricultural operations SHALL wear head protection that conforms to ansi z89.1

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by jimmyq
I was thinking the helmet was a good place to find ear muffs and the shield thingie allready attached

That's the main reason I wear one when sawing. Ear, eye and lung protection from unavoidable hazards is even more important to me than protecting from kickback, which is 100% avoidable.

I had one helper who always refused to wear the helmet when offered, then started complaining about an earache. now he doesn't crank a saw unless the hat and muffs are on; I told him it's that way or the highway.

Brush dragging away from the sawing is a less hazardous "arboricultural operation", so the "mildly aggressive " rocky may be right to say PPE is less important for that task. I'm thinking that the ANSI wording is pretty extreme. Why call for a hardhat for operations--consulting, fertilizing, mulching, disease control--that do not involve cutting?

If the assumption is that arboriculture always involves cutting, that's another unfortunate vestige of our forestry roots.

 

[glens]

"Culture" and "cultivate" indicate everything up to but not including "harvest".  "Arbo" ties it to trees.  Cutting up a tree that's no longer viable, especially when it's laying on the ground, comes under the guise of "arboriculture" only while taking great liberties with language.

Glen

 

[Nickrosis]

Interesting semantical perspectives... I'm gonna have to think about that for a while...

Hard hats save lives. (period). It's worth wearing it even if you're on the ground, even if you're "just" chipping or "just" making a quick cut. It takes "just" a nick and a lot of flesh is missing.

Another curious point to me from the picture was his posture with the saw. I see a lot of inexperienced people bending and bending with their back. If he dropped to a knee, he could better see where his saw is in relation to the ground and preserve his body.

Lots of new people need helpful help. Even people who've been around for a while need to be helped. In this case, I would suggest one point at a time and bring it up in a way that appears to boost his productivity, since $$ seem to talk to people quite well.

Or, tell the owner that the guy not wearing ear protection can sue/claim worker's comp (has happened before) years down the road for hearing loss from the job.

 

[tophopper]

I will admit there have been instances where I havent worn it at all times. But for the most part Im pretty diligent about it.

A question I have for you all- have you seen or known anyone that has taken a chain running at full speed to the face or neck?
Personally I have, and it is not something I would ever want to experience myself. Why risk it? It is there to protect you, and wont do any good if it's not on your head

 

[glens]

Oh, not only do you want me to wear it, but you want me to wear it on my <i>head</i>?&nbsp; Hahaha!

I wear a hard hat for every operation I'm involved in where there are overhead (or head-level) dangers, and even sometimes sawing logs on the ground, but usually not when that's all I'm doing.&nbsp; I don't want a chain, working or not, to touch me anywhere, much less the torso and above.&nbsp; I suppose that a moving chain flipping the hat off my head would be a good indication to me to pay attention to what I'm doing, but if it happened I'd better re-evaluate my ability to perform the task at hand.

Running a chainsaw is not a time to be daydreaming, and certainly not <i>counting on</i> effective PPE.

Glen