
	Friday Fax A Weekly Summary of Polywater^® News of Incredible Importance

Issue #837

Reducing the horrific injuries associated with arc flashes is a "hot" topic right now. The OSHA 29 CFR-1910 Subpart S regulation on electrical safety states that "Safety related work practices shall be employed to prevent electric shock or other injuries resulting from either direct or indirect electrical contacts." These practices demand the use of personal protective equipment whenever a person opens an energized panel. Workers must wear arc flash clothing, such as face shields, fire-resistant suits, and rubber insulating gloves.

But rubber gloves are very sensitive; their insulating properties are easily degraded by contact with incompatible materials. Utilities routinely restrict the materials that come in contact with safety gloves--even specifying the type of soap or hand cleaner that crews can use in their locker room as a preventive measure. Typical cream-style hand cleaners (e.g., Gojo^®) and presaturated canister wipes contain petroleum or other ingredients that are incompatible and will damage insulating gloves.

Luckily, you represent Grime-Away Multipurpose Cleaning Wipes. Grime-Away is the only hand and tool cleaner tested for compatibility and approved for use by workers donning insulating gloves (not for cleaning the gloves themselves--see next week's Fax). Salisbury, a leading manufacturer of lineman safety products, tested Grime-Away specifically on their rubber lineman gloves and found it to be compatible: Salisbury Approval. No other product on the market has such a letter. This approval is huge. It allows craft personnel at utilities and high voltage contractors to clean their hands with the highly convenient and effective Grime-Away wipes in the field and then don their rubber gloves without fear of damage. It also helps salespeople differentiate Grime-Away from other hand and tool cleaners currently in use. Use this letter to help get Grime-Away on standards. Grime-Away is best known as a cleaning product, but in the area of live-line tools and lineman gloves, it's a safety product.

The Friday Fax Editor's Joke of the Week

The Joke

With Winter Coming ... a cautionary tale. A man buys a $30,000 Jeep with a $400 monthly payment. He's proud of his rig and fetches his friend for some male bonding. They go duck hunting on a frozen lake. They take their guns, a Black Lab, and some beer. They drive onto the ice and drink the beers. They realize they need an area for floating decoys and landing ducks. A hole that large takes more than an ice auger. So out comes a stick of dynamite with a 40-second fuse. The two men consider the risk of slipping on the ice if they place the dynamite at a distance from the Jeep and try running back. After deliberation, they decide to light the fuse and throw the dynamite. This piques the interest of the dog. It takes off at top speed, reaching the stick of dynamite just after it hits the ice. Dismayed, the two friends commence to yell and wave their arms at him. Undeterred, the happy retriever dashes back toward them with the dynamite. In a panic, one of them decides to act. He grabs a shotgun and shoots the dog. But the shotgun is loaded with #8 duck shot--hardly enough to stop a speeding dog at a distance. The dog does stop in confusion momentarily, but then dutifully continues on. So another shot, and this time the confused dog becomes scared. Thinking that the two men have gone insane, the pooch races to find cover with an extremely short fuse still burning on the dynamite. The only cover available is the beneath the new $30,000 Jeep sitting nearby on the lake ice. Boom! The dog dies, the Jeep sinks to the lake bottom, and the two geniuses, knocked to their fannies on the ice, are left with shocked looks on their faces. Later, after a hefty fine and a big fee for retrieving the totaled Jeep from the lake--and explaining to the wife and kids why Fido wasn't coming home--the man calls his insurance company and is told that sinking a vehicle in a lake by illegal use of explosives is not covered on his policy. He had yet to make his first car payment.

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American Polywater Corporation -- The world's leading manufacturer of cable pulling lubricants, cable cleaners, sealants, and MRO & construction chemicals.
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