Pit & Quarry, October 2011

SPONSORED BY BY CARL METZGAR Youd have to be an idiot Some of our miners are as lacking in injury prevention information as the most naïve homeowner parts have been penetrated and you would be right Various penetrating injuries have been reported since 1975 The gun that can sink a framing nail in wood can certainly penetrate flesh and bone As you would expect hands feet legs but also skulls have been penetrated The skull penetrations were not suicide attempts It was rare that store sales personnel suggested any training More likely the alert consisted of Instructions are in the box it is easy Just use your head and No training is necessary you just have to get used to how it feels hardly strike one as complete sensible advice and counsel for the use of a tool capable of causing serious injury The research report includes a priceless comment of the worst kind Get a buddy and the operators manual and four or five beers and you are good to go This has to rank high on any misinformation list It beats out Just do the best you can One salesperson was reported to have said You would have to be an idiot to shoot yourself with one of these Emergency rooms nationwide are the gathering place for 14000 idiots a year PQ Carl R Metzgar CSP has more than 30 years of safety and health experience in the aggregates industry He provides consulting services with a specialization in program evaluation training compliance and loss control and can be reached at 336 766 8264 cmetz46840@ aol com M ost of the nail guns in service are used in wood frame construction That means that if the contractor provides the tool it is responsible for its condition and the training of the apprentice and journeymen carpenters Nail guns have a broad application as a productive tool Harry Homeowner and his associates including a noticeable number of women engaged in significant DIY projects are also nail gun purchasers The demand for an effective tool has resulted in the easy availability of nail guns in retail outlets The broad accessibility of nail guns pushes their attendant hazards beyond construction sites In many cases the miners in our quarries pits and plants are as knowledgeable as journeymen carpenters It is also true that many are not Our miners may be using nail guns at work and at home Some of our miners are as lacking in injury prevention information as the most naïve homeowner There are more than 35000 injuries from nail guns treated in U S emergency rooms each year 14000 are consumers and not carpenters That serves as a powerful warning for the safe use of these tools Digging deeper Researchers in the Division of Occupational Medicine at Duke University went into the field to determine the extent and quality of hazard prevention information that salespeople give and are capable of giving to purchasers They set up their questions so that the salesperson could volunteer additional information if the supposed purchaser didnt ask meaningful questions If that didnt work questions followed from the posed purchasers There are two distinctly different triggering mechanisms on nail guns The differences are very important for the user The more common contact tip design is the more hazardous The contact tip design allows discharge anytime the nose tip and the trigger mechanism are both depressed at the same time The trigger can be held continuously in the active position The gun fires whenever the tip is depressed THERE ARE MORE THAN 35000 INJURIES FROM NAIL GUNS TREATED IN U S EMERGENCY ROOMS EACH YEAR 14000 ARE CONSUMERS AND NOT CARPENTERS THAT SERVES AS A POWERFUL WARNING FOR THE SAFE USE OF THESE TOOLS This makes it possible to bump nail The safer sequential design requires the nose to be depressed before the trigger is pulled Only 53 percent of salespersons mentioned the differences in trigger design in the study The 2003 ANSI standard allows for the shipping of most of the larger framing tools with sequential actuation systems Manufacturers can comply with the standard But then they can ship the alternative and more dangerous trip trigger in the same box These tip differences are important History of injury You might suspect that multiple body 40 PIT QUARRY October 2011 www pitandquarry com