Ppe

[beowulf343]

Ear plugs are WAAAAY better than nothing, but they don't do as much as muffs. The reason is that a lot of sound is transmitted through the mastoid bone (right behind your ear), and ear plugs don't stop that at all. A good set of muffs DO reduce that quite a bit.

Plus ear muffs help keep your ears warm when it's cold out!

 

[b1rdman]

How many of ya'll actually wear it? What do you wear? I mean specifics. I know everyone encourages it, but what do you wear yourself? Safety glasses? Hard hat with face shield and hearing protectors? Chaps? Gloves? Stihl toed boots? (pun there) What do you wear daily??? and who are the manufacturer's of the safety gear you wear? Thanks for the info...

I cut for 20 years in whatever I happened to be wearing at the time. The only PPE I knew was a pair of saftey glasses if there was one nearby.

I started wearing chaps, ear protection, and glass every time I cut about a year or so ago....largely because of this site and the peer pressure. I'll wear gloves if it's cold, and boots if it's muddy....still working on those.

A brain bucket/mesh guard will probably become a standard for me soon. I cut a lot of "dead standing" trees on my property so I think it's time for me to stop gambling. Plus..the eyeglass are good for a spec in the eye but logic tells me they're only a "feel good" for real eye hazards.

 

[ciscoguy01]

Ugh

I cut for 20 years in whatever I happened to be wearing at the time. The only PPE I knew was a pair of saftey glasses if there was one nearby.

I started wearing chaps, ear protection, and glass every time I cut about a year or so ago....largely because of this site and the peer pressure. I'll wear gloves if it's cold, and boots if it's muddy....still working on those.

A brain bucket/mesh guard will probably become a standard for me soon. I cut a lot of "dead standing" trees on my property so I think it's time for me to stop gambling. Plus..the eyeglass are good for a spec in the eye but logic tells me they're only a "feel good" for real eye hazards.

You guys are all so good about it too. I'm so friggin bad. I've never even worn steel toed boots or Safety glasses. I should, I know I should, I just never have. Now I've got all these old dudes hounding me about wearing safety gear I figured I'd ask. In 21 yrs of cutting I've never worn hard hat, safety glasses, chaps, steel toed boots, mostly never worn gloves, nothing really at all. I'm going to start, at least small anyways. I'm gonna buy some steeltoes, safety glasses, I've already got hard hats from when I was a steel worker. That'll be a good start for now. Do ya'll wear hard hats when bucking up wood??? Thanks for all the great info...

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Do ya'll wear hard hats when bucking up wood???

Do we wear hardhats when running a chainsaw?

Head, ear and eye at all times. Anything else is cheating yourself.

Just assume you've been lucky since your early teens.

The thing is, the more often you do something the more risk you have. Studies have shown that the incidence of injury declines as a worker gains knowledge/experiance then will spike back up after ~8 years. This is based soly on repoorted injuries and "Time in Service" for lack of a better term.

 

[Jumper]

I've already got hard hats from when I was a steel worker. That'll be a good start for now. Do ya'll wear hard hats when bucking up wood???

Bear in mind old hard hards are brittle and not much protection-up here the safety rating expires after a given number of years. Splurge and buy yourself a new state of the art hat with muff and shield. Yes I wear the hat when bucking because it is integral to the shield and muff system.

 

[ciscoguy01]

Hmmm

The thing is, the more often you do something the more risk you have. Studies have shown that the incidence of injury declines as a worker gains knowledge/experiance then will spike back up after ~8 years. This is based soly on repoorted injuries and "Time in Service" for lack of a better term.

I guess that makes sense. The whole comfort thing and all. Getting comfortable with something as unsafe as sawing can be a bad thing I'd think. My hardhats are all only 4 or 5 yrs old, what we/most of us wear are really just bump caps, i.e. those plastic ones. I reckon I'll start throwing it on. Anyone use the newer carbon fiber boots in place of the steel toes yet? I was wondering how comfortable they are comparatively. Steel toed boots get really cold up here in the winter so most I know tend to steer clear of them...

 

[SRT-Tech]

something i have noticed while working in many different fields, is that people DO NOT wear PPE when it is uncomfortable or hard to adjust. A lot of the cheaper stuff, particularly helmets/hardhats simply does not fit many people, and is limited in fit adjustment....so workers tend to avoid using it. Same with eyeglases...the frames break if you breath on them, the lens fog up, workers dont wear them. Earplugs - hard to insert sometimes, dont stay in when wet, uncomfortable, workers chuck em.

I dropped pretty big coin for my Petzl Vertex helmet, Peltor Optime 102 muffs and mesh face shield, it was money well spent. At the end of the day i'm still wearing them, sometimes i dont notice until i'm sitting in traffic :biggrinbounce2: The Peltor muffs are so comfortable to wear, they dont get waterlogged with sweat, they block out over 35 DB of noise (i tested them with a meter). The Vertex lid is infinitely adjustable, and with a simple turn of the wheel i can wear a tuque (wool hat) underneath the helmet.

fit is important, i think more people should try out the gear in the store, wear it for ten minutes, move about mimicking the work positions, rather than thinking about the money spent on it...

 

[Bermie]

I believe the recommendation is to wear eye protection in addition to the shield, which you unfortunately discovered.

I have experienced retina tears on the surface of my eye (not related to work) and can honestly say an eye injury is one of the most painful anyone will ever experience. Hope you are OK.

I too have experienced eye injuries, I almost lost my sight as a child when I got poked in the eye. I always wore safety glasses for landscaping, but moving to arb, I figured the mesh face shield was enough, a few weeks ago I got a wake up call, a springy branch flipped up under the face shield and jabbed me in the eyeball. A trip to the ER, scratched eye and thank goodness it was the weekend, time to recover. Now I'm sporting those orange glasses as well!

I find a big part of the problem with wearing PPE, or not, is that if it's not part of the work culture, you're looked on as a pansy, people laugh, call you a show off and stuff like that. I've developed a thick skin and ignore them. I go home at the end of the day with all the bits God gave me still attached!

PS; the surface scratches are in your cornea -the outer covering of the eye, they are painful, feels like sand and glass in your eye, luckily they can heal with no lasting damage depending where and how deep they are. The retina is inside the eye at the back, where the rods and cones do all the amazing light filtering magic to let you see, if your retina is damaged...big trouble...been there survived that!

 

[wdchuck]

Ear plugs are WAAAAY better than nothing, but they don't do as much as muffs. The reason is that a lot of sound is transmitted through the mastoid bone (right behind your ear), and ear plugs don't stop that at all. A good set of muffs DO reduce that quite a bit.

If a sound hurts your ears, you passed "permanent damage" a few deciBels back.

I wear earplugs, fully inserted, because the muffs don't cut enough sound. I've worked in shops were we could order any muffs we wanted, I ordered some very nice ones, they were more convenient than earplugs when hands were oily/dirty.

Now that I only wear hearing protection around power equipment and the kids I have found my hearing to be better after wearing the plugs vs. muffs. This is my personal observation, now, when it get's colder out I wear both, but the difference is hardly noticeable.

I also wear earplugs at concerts and the odd live band bar party. No sense going home half-deef.

Thanks for the info on the mastoid bone, I'll look into that more.

Now, about that question about gloves, what would be some good ones to help reduce the vibe getting through, I wear all leather gloves now, and could use an upgrade for saw-only chores.

 

[blis]

i like the comfort gloves made by husqvarna...

Linky

but IMO, buying a husky helps alot with vibes :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[wdchuck]

i like the comfort gloves made by husqvarna...

Linky

but IMO, buying a husky helps alot with vibes :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange:

Now, all they need is some white tape with STIHLover that other name and they'd be wearable in public.:hmm3grin2orange: :sword:

 

[Jumper]

I

PS; the surface scratches are in your cornea -the outer covering of the eye, they are painful, feels like sand and glass in your eye, luckily they can heal with no lasting damage depending where and how deep they are. The retina is inside the eye at the back, where the rods and cones do all the amazing light filtering magic to let you see, if your retina is damaged...big trouble...been there survived that!

I meant cornea-you are right, very PAINFUL! And also right, after a little cleaning of the damaged tissue, I healed good as new.

 

[Jumper]

I

PS; the surface scratches are in your cornea -the outer covering of the eye, they are painful, feels like sand and glass in your eye, luckily they can heal with no lasting damage depending where and how deep they are. The retina is inside the eye at the back, where the rods and cones do all the amazing light filtering magic to let you see, if your retina is damaged...big trouble...been there survived that!

I meant cornea-you are right, very PAINFUL! And also right, after a little cleaning of the damaged tissue, I healed good as new.

 

[Bermie]

I meant cornea-you are right, very PAINFUL! And also right, after a little cleaning of the damaged tissue, I healed good as new.

Good news! Stay safe

 

[Tom Dunlap]

This is such an ecouraging thread

It wasn't too long ago when this topic would have spun down into a spitting match about how silly looking, hard to wear and worthless PPE is.

Things are looking up!

My hearing pro of choice are Tiger Tails:

http://www.safety.com.sg/hlaccessories.htm

 

[OTG BOSTON]

This is such an ecouraging thread

It wasn't too long ago when this topic would have spun down into a spitting match about how silly looking, hard to wear and worthless PPE is.

Things are looking up!

My hearing pro of choice are Tiger Tails:

http://www.safety.com.sg/hlaccessories.htm

Hey Tom, are those insert plugs any better or worse for the ears than the traditional ear muff style?

 

[blis]

the best hardhat around (after huskys own)

got older version of that and its great...

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Some people do have problems with inserts.

Knock on wood...my noggin :bang: I've never had an ear problem using inserts. The TTs are easy to clean as opposed to the foam ones.

 

[Sprig]

I my foamies, and use them with my 'No-Noise' (made in Sweden)helmet mounted muffs. All inserted ones have different ratings, some are better specifically for high frequencies (those do the most damage) and most have ratings db reductions of between 24-30. Ive used ringed ones (like the type that come with the TTs) and have a whole collection of odd-balls, hard to get a decent fit unless I shell out around 40$ for custom fits (which I lose too, gah). I find the foamies easy to wash with a little hand soap, warm water, and a squeeze in a towel and they're good to go. I always carry a pocket full and use fresh ones whenever I take them out (oily/sawdusty/greasy fingers), especially in wet weather as wet plugs stop doing their job. Keep a bunch inna small ziplock baggy where they'll stay warm and pliable). They are the cheapest piece of PPE and work as long as you don't shove them into da ol' brainpan (and can't get the buggers out), last time I did that I forgot about it till my kid dug it out with 'er teeny fingers lol, sheesh! :bang: .
But what ever you choose, just do it! This goes for all PPE, buy it, use it, make it second nature. As far as I'm concerned you cannot put a price on your health (until you lose it) and safety.
Ya Ya, :deadhorse:, and well worth beating often imo.



Serge

 

[JohN Dee]

So none of you guys wear a Backbrace?