Three Safety Tips

When it comes to safety, there are lots of ways to break the rules in a repair shop environment. Many of you have carpal tunnel, strained ligaments, sore backs, etc.; and I know that a few of you have broken bones or worse in your careers. I’ve been relatively lucky: just a few broken ribs (Turbo-Hydramatic 400’s were heavy) and a dozen stitches courtesy of the razor sharp rocker panel flange common to so many cars and light trucks. In both cases, I could have avoided the pain with a little common sense. In the first case, trying to move a light truck automatic transmission onto a cart by myself over an oil-soaked floor wasn’t a bright idea, especially since lots of help was available just by asking. At 17, of course, you never ask for help, preferring to screw up royally by yourself . . . in the second case, I wasn’t wearing safety glasses so when I zipped off that rusty clamp, the inevitable happened and the rust flew into my eye. I then jerked my head back (no hard hat, of course) and split my scalp wide open. The doc in the ER had no sympathy whatsoever. Nor should he have. Hanging around the hospital does, however, let you pick up a tip or two concerning safety. Here are three:

Know when to put on and take off, gloves

Today’s nitrile gloves are skin tight and durable, meaning there’s not much excuse for not wearing them. Yes, you can get enough “feel” and you can get used to them; but while they protect your skin form the various nasty chemicals used in every shop, there is a time to take them off: when they’re split or punctured. Tear the gloves, and then get into oils or solvents, and the fluids are held against the skin, worse than wearing no gloves at all. At the smallest tear, take it off and put on a new one. They’re cheap and your hands won’t look like roast beef by the time you get home for dinner.

When you’re cut, flush with water

This one is intuitive, but it’s now backed by science. Recent scientific studies of wound care to prevent infection have determined that flushing with fresh water is as effective as using antiseptic in treating a cut or burn. The key is to flush the wound, which means running water and lots of it, for at least a couple of minutes. In fact, antiseptic solutions have been shown to slow healing of a clean wound, so think about lots of clean water, dry, then a clean bandage or dressing. Naturally, if it’s serious, get medical help, but if your shop is like most, it has to be a bloodbath before a tech will take a cut seriously.

Know how to flush your eyes

These days, every shop has one of those plastic squeeze bottle eye wash stations and by the way they’re designed, they’re easy to use. Just put your eye in the cup ands squirt away. The thing they don’t tell you is that the human eyeball is like a sponge . . . flush the surface with one shot and you’ll think you’re done, possibly damaging your eyesight. A doctor once told me that 15 minutes is a good amount of eye wash for a solvent splash . . . and 15 minutes will seem like an eternity if you’re running cold water into your eye. You gotta do it. A good way is to use a rubber hose attached to a clean faucet (you can find one of those, right?) allowing you to hold your head over the sink while you flush out the gunk. Don’t assume that because if feels better, it’s clean. For a really bad exposure, again, get to a clinic or ER and tell them at triage what happened. I’ve seen good techs with 8 or 9 fingers, but it’s hard to read a code when you’re blind.

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A doctor once told me that 15 minutes is a good amount of eye wash for a solvent splash . . . and 15 minutes will seem like an eternity if you’re running cold water into your eye. You gotta do it.

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Response to Letter to Editor for Jim’s Rant “Are You Sick?”:

Jim replies:

Hey, Linden, it’s still a free country (for now!) and you have an inalienable right to refuse the jab…. I agree, it won’t kill the virus, but out here, kids have died from this thing, and although I’m a very low risk (I was exposed in ’76) I don’t want to be down any longer than I have to…. and I don’t want to infect anybody else if I can help it. Sounds to me that your family is tough and can stand it; some other kids, especially with other health problems, can’t. And the World Health Organization says that this virus is different from past flus: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/frequently_asked_questions/about_disease/en/

As far as corruption in the finance ministry, that stock connection needs to be exposed, so I hope you’ll E-mail your MP and MLA, too. And thanks for taking the time to E-mail us here at SSGM! We love letters….

letterstotheeditor@ssgm.com