Safety Articles and Tips

770 Pages·2006·4.52 MB·English

Safety

Safety Articles and Tips
This section currently contains Safety Articles and Tips that were
written by:
Bill Buckner, who is currently serving as the AFMS Safety
Chairman
Mel Albright, who is currently and has served both the AFMS
Safety Chairman and the RMFMS Safety Chairman
Bill Klose, EFMLS Safety Chariman
Cathy Gaber, American Opal Society Safety Chairman
There are many more pages to be added in this section, so check
back often.
Use the links on the left side of the page.

Last Revised on January 15, 2006
© 1998-2006 American Federation of Mineralogical Societies, Inc.
http://www.amfed.org/safetytips.htm
Send suggestions to [email protected]

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AFMS Safety

Safety Tips from the AFMS
The following articles are reprints of safety articles that have appeared in past issues of the
AFMS newsletters. The author of each article is included with the individual artlicles.
Contents:
Ground fault interrupters
Angle of repose
Sun protection
General Safety
Skin cancer
Flying objects
Sun stroke/sun exhaustion
Convoy
Bugs and varments
Laboratory/shop
Tain’t So
"Safety" glasses
First aid kit
Spiders
Copyright Notice
Some Other AFMS Newsletter Articles on This Site:
Jun 1997 - Snakes
Oct 1997 - Brrrr!!!!!, Part II
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Dec 1997 - Rotary Slingshots
Feb 1998 - Don't Stop on Empty
Apr 1998 - Tote That Rock, Lift That Toolbag
May 1998 - Colorful And Deadly
Feb 1998 - It's Just Dust, Isn't It, Part I
Sep 1998 - It's Just Dust, Isn't It, Part II
Oct 1998 - It's Just Dust, Isn't It, Part III
Apr 1999 - Danger!! - Sunshine Coming!!
May 1999 - Are You Ready for Trouble?
Sep 1999 - Hazards From Organic Chemicals
Oct 1999 - Sawing Away - Safety?
Dec 1999 - Is This Stuff Safe?
Mar 2000 - Now What Do I Do?
Apr 2000 - Zapped In Silence
Jun 2000 - Hammer Safety
Sep 2000 - That Was Stupid!!
Sep 2000 - Honnnk, Honnnk (Convoy Safety)
Oct 2000 - Go It Alone?
Dec 2000 - Safety First (Rotating Machinery)
Jan 2001 - Help Me! (First Aid Kits)
Feb 2001 - Shop Safety 101
Mar 2001 - Help! And How to Say It
Apr 2001 - Safety - Safety - Safety
May 2001 - Ouch, Thats My Foot! (Safety Shoes)
Jun 2001 - It is the Dawning of the Age of - Sunshine
Sep 2001 - Digging Away
Oct 2001 - Just a Little Dust
Nov 2001 - A Bolt Out of the Blue (Lightning)
Dec 2001 - A Glean In Your Eye
Feb 2002 - What's All This Tire Stuff?
Apr 2002 - Crackle or Click? (Electricity)
May 2002 - Crying Wolf (Warnings)
Oct 2002 - Are You Ready For Some Safety? (Club Safety Chair)
Mar 2003 - Safety First (Hammer Safety)
May 2003 - Safety (Safety in general)
Jun 2003 - Safety by Bill Buckner (Safety issues in our shops)
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Sep 2003 - Safety on the Road
Other Sites Safety Links
Rock Hound Collection Safety
Rockhounders Safety Area
Ground fault interrupters
A SHOCKING EXPERIENCE?
Imagine that you are working away in the shop. As usual around lapidary work, there’s a little
water on the floor. As usual, you pay little attention. You reach over to turn the switch on your
equipment. ZAP!
Would you rather
1. Your family learned CPR so that they might rescue you when you are electrocuted?
OR 2. You felt a short tingle, the electricity turned off, and you went to work to find and repair
your machine’s electrical short?
One doesn’t have to be a genius to know you’d prefer number 2. But, have you prepared so that
number 2 is assured. If not, read on.
There is a device called a ground fault interrupter (GFI). If answer number 2. appeals to you, you
should learn about them and get some installed. What does the GFI do for you? GFIs detect the
flow of current when something (perhaps you) in the circuit is grounded and, in a millisecond,
turn off the current. If you are in the grounding circuit, it happens so fast that it will be over before
you realized that you were in the circuit. Your life is spared. No sparks fly. No fire starts. Just,
suddenly, the electricity is off.
GFI’s come in a couple of forms. One is as a unit to fit into your master electrical panel board. It
will protect all the electrical equipment plugged in that circuit. The other is as a replacement in
your wall plug-in box. It protects everything plugged into that one box. Neither is expensive ($12
to $25). But, most of us don’t want to (and shouldn’t) fool around with the back of our master
panel board, So, it is best to have an electrician install GFI’s there. You can install one in the wall
box yourself IF you know what you are doing. If you don’t, call an electrician for that, too.
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The saddest feeling known is to say to yourself "If I had only done that first." Get your GFI’s and
install them now!
Side thought - It is an excellent idea to put these on any circuit near a water faucet - especially
around the bathroom, the kitchen, and the laundry.
by Mel Albright - AFMS Safety Chairman
Angle of repose
REPOSING EASILY
Whenever we rockhounds go on a field trip, we are likely to be around a creek bed, a road cut, a quarry, a
steep bank, or a spoils pile. If so, we should all remember that there is something called the angle of
repose.
No, I'm not talking about how flat you should be when you lie down to rest. The angle of repose is a civil
engineering term. It is a fact that a pile of anything - sand, rocks, marbles, hay, or whatever - has the
property that the slope of the side of the pile determines whether the pile slides down or not. If the slope is
over the angle of repose, it WILL slide - sooner or later. If it less than the angle of repose, it will sit there
forever without sliding. The angle depends on the materials in the pile and on their sizes, so there is no
general rule as to what angle is safe. Therefore, most road cuts and fills are slightly less steep than the
angle of repose.
If you stand below or try to climb a slope that is too steep for the material it is made of, there is a very
good chance that the top will come down on you.
It gets more complicated. Consider what happens when you step into the side of a slope. Your foot forms a
hollow. This means the material just above and just below your footprint is at too steep an angle. So, it
slides down. As it goes, it continuously forms a slope that is too steep, so the material slides and slides and
forms a major slump. If you are trying to ride it or if you are below it, that is not good.
When you dig or extract a sample from a pile or a cliff or a quarry wall, the same thing happens. If you dig
a tunnel, you have definitely formed a highly unstable slope and the slightest jar may bring it all down on
you. That's why mines have shoring. Several children are killed each year because of this. I'm sure you
have heard of it.
So, when hunting rocks, test the slope you're on or below for stability before getting into a position where
you might get hurt or buried. And, always keep an eye on any rockhound that is above you. They might
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start something that hurts you!
by Mel Albright - AFMS Safety Chairman
Sun protection
DANGER - SUNSHINE
One of the fastest increasing diseases today is skin cancer. It is caused by too mush sunshine. It does not
appear right after you get too much sun, though. It will appear 10, 20, 30, or more years later. So, the only
sure protection is to start now to develop good habits to avoid sun damage to your skin. Then, keep on
being careful.
The basic cause of damage from the sun is through ultraviolet radiation. Recent research has said that one
serious sunburn as a child can lead to cancer. Recent research reports that sunscreen does not protect
against skin melanomas - the deadliest cancer. In my area, our TV weathermen report the UV exposure
factor. They include the safe exposure time. In summer, it typically is something like 8 minutes for fair
skin people, 14 for medium skin people, and 22 for dark skin people.
The Skin Cancer Foundation recommends the following as ways to prevent and control skin damage from
the sun. Stay out of the sun during the most dangerous times - 10 AM to 2 PM (11 AM to 3 PM daylight
time). Wear a hat, a long sleeve shirt, and long pants (tight-knit cloth) when in the sun. Apply sunscreen
before going out and re-apply every 2 hours or after swimming while outside. Use at least a 15 SPF
sunscreen on all exposed skin (the 15 means it takes 15 times as long to reach the same sun exposure as
with no sunscreen). The higher the altitude, the more UV comes to you and the more sunscreen is needed.
Cloudy days do not protect you - UV comes right through clouds. If you work outside, use sunscreen
daily. A tan does NOT protect you. Some medicines, drugs, cosmetics and birth control pills make you
more sensitive to sun damage. If you develop and allergy to one sunscreen, change to another one. Watch
out for reflective surfaces - sand, snow, water (The Great Salt Plains). Staying in the shade doesn’t help
around these. Stay out of tanning parlors. Keep infants out of the sun. Start using sunscreen on children
when they are 6 months old. Teach your children sun protection early and insist they follow the rules.
Sources: American Academy of Dermatology; The Skin Cancer Foundation
by Mel Albright - AFMS Safety Chairman
General Safety
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SAFETY TALK? - HO HUM!
What’s your reaction when someone says there’s going to be a safety talk? If you’re like most people, you
immediately wish you were somewhere else. Is it because the people who talk about safety are boring? Or,
do you consider yourself infallible and immortal? Yes, many speakers are and no you aren’t either. When
we get bored at the sound of the word "safety", we’re not really thinking danger is a part of the things we
do.
However, we are engaged in a hobby in which there are a great number of ways to hurt yourself or be hurt
by others. So, we really should think about what we are doing and how we are doing it. We use poisonous
materials, have flammable materials, use acid and caustic materials, use fire, generate dangerous fumes,
drive in convoys, get out in the sun a lot, are often around unstable cliffs, ditches, and the like, use tools
which often release flying material, use electrical equipment around water, use rotary tools, and more.
Do you know how to protect yourself and your friends in every one of these cases. Or, are you like many
of us? - just go ahead and never think about something going wrong? Do you own protective equipment -
like canvas and rubber gloves, eye protection, safety shoes, safety hats. If you own them, do you use them?
Face it, most of us don’t. Can you treat insect and snake bites?
May I suggest something new? How about a "Safety Minute" at each club meeting. Either have a safety
chairman or ask someone new each meeting to simply mention some one thing that people in the club do
that should require safety considerations. No one has time to get bored. Everyone is reminded that there
are ways to get hurt in following this hobby. An extra free benefit of this idea is that people will become
more safety conscious even doing things that are never mentioned in the meeting. Hey, give it a try!
by Mel Albright - AFMS Safety Chairman
Skin cancer
DO YOU SEE SPOTS?
The next time you take a bath, stop afterwards and look over your skin all over your body. Do you see any
spots? See any rough patches of skin? See any small "bumps" of white dead skin? Any moles that are
changing or growing? Any thing else that looks unusual? If you do, it is time to see a Dermatologist.
Maybe QUICK!
Sun damage to the skin is one of the major health problems today. But, it is not caused by what you have
done lately. It depends on you sun exposure 10, 20, 30, or even 40 years ago.
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By far, the most serious problem you might see is melanoma cancer. This cancer spreads rapidly and is
deadly. The four things that might indicate melanoma are: A varied color growth that is asymmetric, has
irregular edges is something to worry about. If it is larger than 6 mm in diameter, it is really dangerous.
This includes long time moles that change size, color, or shape. Run! do not walk, to the doctor if you see
something that might be this.
Next in importance are basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. Although not as deadly as
melanoma, these can be serious if not treated. Any of these 5 things might indicate that these are present.
1. An open sore that bleeds, crusts, or oozes for more than 3 weeks. 2. A reddish patch. It may sometimes
be crusty. It may itch or hurt. 3. A smooth growth with a rolled border with an indentation in the middle. 4.
A shinny bump or nodule which is pearly or translucent. They are often pink, red, or white. Less common,
they may be tan, black, or brown. They MAY BE CONFUSED with a mole. 5. A scar-like area which is
white, yellow or waxy. It will be shinny and the surrounding skin is taut.
Also important are three pre-cancerous conditions. These may lead to cancer if they are untreated. Solar
or actinic keratoses occur as rough, dry, pink to tan patches on sunexposed skin. These are caused by the
ultraviolet in the sun and. Leukoplakia is a smooth, white patch which affects the mucous membranes,
primarily the lips and inside the mount. Radiodermatitus appears as a mottled area with a decrease of
skin pigment.
We’ll discuss how to limit skin damage from the sun in another article.
Sources: American Academy of Dermatology; The Skin Cancer Foundation
by Mel Albright - AFMS Safety Chairman
Flying objects
IDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS
You pick up a rock that looks promising. You can’t quite tell if it's any good. You want to see what’s
inside. So, you take your rock hammer or another rock and hit it to chip off a piece. ZING, a chip hits your
eye. You are now one-eyed.
That great specimen you want is partially buried in the matrix right there!. All you have to do is get it
loose without breaking it. So, you grab a chisel and a hammer and start chipping. ZING, a chip hits your
eye. You are now one-eyed.
You need to get that rock out of the ground. All it needs is a little prying. You grab a crowbar, point the
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end at the crack and bang it down to force it into the ground. ZING, a chip hits your eye. You are now one-
eyed.
You want some rocks for tumbling. All you have are too big. So, you grab a big one, set it down on the
ground, take a hammer and bang away. ZING, a chip hits your eye. You are now one-eyed.
Your piece of slab is too big. It’s real time consuming to trim it with your saw. So, you grab a pair of
pliers, grab a corner, and pry to break it off. ZING, a chip hits your eye. You are now one-eyed. OR, you
score the slab with a glass cutter, line the score over a bench edge, and start tapping to break it. ZING, a
chip hits your eye. You are now one-eyed.
You’re cleaning a fossil. As you chip away to get matrix off, you lean closer and closer to see that you get
it exactly right. Suddenly your hammer slips and bounces. ZING, the hammer hits your eye. You are now
one-eyed.
You’re gluing with epoxy. You get a little hardener on your hand. You wipe the sweat off your forehead.
You get a little hardener in your eye. ZING, you are now one-eyed.
Wild? Exaggerated? Not really. It happens all too often.
Plastic safety glasses at WalMart - about $1. Plastic face shield at WalMart - about
$5. Worth it?
by Mel Albright - AFMS Safety Chairman
Sun stroke/sun exhaustion
SUN SAFETY
Do you ever hunt rocks on a warm to hot day? Garden? Hike? Or something else active? Then, in much of
the United States, you’d best learn to recognize the symptoms of thing going wrong when we get too hot.
HEAT CRAMPS are the less serious, but still dangerous result of too much heat. These are spasms of the
muscles brought on by exertion in hot weather. Many times, the calves are the first muscles affected.
What causes cramps? Intense sweating followed by drinking of salt free water. They are more likely to
occur if you’re out of shape, in poor health, tired, or have been drinking alcohol. BUT, they can occur to
anyone! To avoid cramps, take it easy in hot weather, eat salty foods or take salt tablets, or drink athletic
drinks that have salt in them. If cramps occur, stop, get in a cool place and rest, stretch and message the
cramped muscle. Drink something salty.
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HEAT EXHAUSTION occurs when you run out of body salt and/or water. Symptoms are fatigue,
lightheadedness, thirst, maybe cramps, spasms, nausea and/or vomiting. Mental ability will be normal.
Low grade fever (99 to 102F), a rapid pulse, and dehydration are often present.
In HEAT STROKE, the most serious effect, the individual will have a high fever (104 to 106F). There will
be mental confusion, unusual behavior, convulsions, or coma. The blood pressure may be dangerously low
from shock.
IMMEDIATE CARE for heat exhaustion or heat stroke includes moving the individual to air-
conditioning, lying on their back, with a fan if available. Remove or loosen tight clothing, place cool
compresses on forehead, neck, and under arms. You may sprinkle water on them, but do not put them into
a tub or swimming pool. If they vomit, give them nothing by mouth. Otherwise cold, salt-containing
liquids will help. Use 4 teaspoon salt in 1 quart water and give them 4 oz. every 15 minutes. If symptoms
persist, or if they are unconscious, transport immediately to a hospital.
Remember, some people tolerate heat better than others. Even though you feel fine, if any of the above
symptoms starts, act immediately. Continuing on and insisting "I’m O.K." or "I’ll be O.K. in a minute."is
NOT the way to go. It can only make things worse.
Reference: COMPUSERVE FIRST AID SECTION
Convoy
FOLLOW ME!!!
by Mel Albright, AFMS Safety Chair
For many rockhound clubs, the field trip season is upon us. For others, it is fast approaching. So, now is an
appropriate time to think about such trips.
In the classical fashion, everyone meets at 7:30 AM at McDonalds or some such arrangement. Then, the
leader says "Let’s go!" - "Everyone follow me.", jumps into his vehicle and goes driving off down the
road. Everyone else falls in behind and each driver careful tries to memorize the car ahead of him so he
won’t get lost. And - AWAY THEY GO!
What are the problems with this?
First, let’s consider the dynamics of the "follow the leader" approach. The lead driver takes off, and,
usually drives at the speed limit or a little slower. The next car can’t exactly match his speed, so they get
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