Cheers Safety Stuff Subscriber,

. . . here's wishing you a safe, healthy and fun life.

Since the last issue I've been a busy speaker. I had a refreshing time speaking at the MCAA's Safety Directors' Conference in Las Vegas. (Then, I helped pay for some of the lights at the casino.) Thanks Pete and Missy. I hope we meet again.

Last Friday I spent the day with leaders at American Water--only an hour's drive from me. A great audience. Thanks Kevin for choosing me and good luck with your new programs.

I just got back yesterday from Colorado. What crazy fun I had with the safety leader's from Raytheon. Sunday night I attended a party which included a "Raytheon Band." Thanks Maggie, Frank and everyone else for the party!

Next week I'm off to the VPPPA region 10 convention and the MN Safety Council convention. More about that later.

Congratulations Pete Keller from TEAM Audubon! You won! You are now officially a safety & health meeting/promotion idea winner.

Safety & health meeting/promotion idea winners get 25 Safety & Health Puzzles on CD which they can copy and give out to their employees. They also get a copy of Spice It Up! 52 Easy Ways to Turn Your Safety Meetings From Bland to Grand! If you'd like to purchase these helpful products just go to: www.makesafetyfun.com

If I publish your idea on how to use a prop to make a point, or some way to get your audience involved in a safety & health meeting, or an innovative way to promote safety & health on and off the job, you'll win the puzzles and booklet.

Send your ideas to me at richard@richardhawkinc.com or click on the link at the bottom of this message.

Let's see what Pete thought up:

SLIPPERY SHOES

I manage safety at a gear manufacturing plant. Many people use sheets of cardboard to stand on. I have repeatedly tried to explain to them that this makes for poor footing and leads to slips. No one chose to believe me.

Finally, I hit on a demonstration that convinced many of my die hards. I borrowed a baby shoe from my boss. I sat it on a piece of plywood elevated so that everyone in our shop meeting could see it. I tied a loop of monofilament line around the shoe and fastened the other end to a small bucket hanging off the edge of the plywood.

Next, I filled the bucket with fishing weights until the shoe started to slide along the plywood. I then removed enough weight so the shoe stopped sliding. I lifted the shoe and put a piece of cardboard under it and set it back down with the same weight still in the bucket. The bucket hit the floor and the shoe flew across the room. We are now back to using the cardboard for dunnage as originally intended.

TIDBITS

Onions contain a mild antibiotic. (It doesn't kill bad breath.)

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, approximately three women are murdered by their boyfriends every day.

Frayed wires and damaged outlets caused 411 U.S. deaths in 2005.

When Toby the two-year-old Golden Retriever saw his owner, 45-year-old Debbie Parkhurst, punching her own chest at the dinner table in their Calvert, Maryland, home, he somehow knew exactly what to do. "The next thing I know," said Parkhurst, "Toby's up on his hind feet and he's got his front paws on my shoulders. He pushed me to the ground, and once I was on my back, he began jumping up and down on my chest."

Good thing, too--Parkhurst had been choking on a piece of apple, which Toby successfully dislodged. "I'm still a little hoarse, but otherwise, I'm okay," she told reporters. "I literally have pawprint-shaped bruises on my chest."

VERY RELEVANT

Here is a bit of feedback from "The Safe Life-- Home, Work and Play" talk I gave at the Iowa-Illinois Safety Council's PDC conference in April.

• Wonderful presentation, so positive.
• Kept topics interesting--involved audience.
• Always entertained and encouraged by Richard's presentations.
• Good involvement of the group--very relevant.

If you'd like to get the same type of results at your next convention or employee day (or are looking for ways to improve your safety & health culture), contact Michele Lucia (972-899-3411 michele@richardhawkinc.com), or click on the link at the end of this email message.

If you'd like to see a video of yours truly go to my safety website www.makesafetyfun.com.

LOCKJAW

If you've every attended one of my talks where I give the "Misconception Test" then you already know that rust doesn't cause lockjaw. But here is an excerpt about logjaw from a section in Final Exits by Michael Largo that I found interesting:

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"Step on a crack, break your mother's back, step on a line, you break your mother's spine." This classic rhyme teaches kids to look where they're going and, indirectly, also warns about stepping on harmful things, including rusty nails. Of course, avoiding sidewalk cracks does nothing to prevent spinal injuries, but getting a nail puncture, cut, or laceration could bring on extreme muscle rigidity, known as lockjaw or tetanus.

Contrary to popular belief, it's not the rust that brings on lockjaw, but a microbe Clostridium tetani, found in soil, manure and common dirt, that affects the central nervous system. The spores lie dormant for up to forty years, ready to spring to life in the body's warm environment once it enters through an open wound.

The toxins emitted by these germinating spores cause abdominal, back, and muscle spasms from the chest to the face. When this muscular rigidity sets in, there is little chance medicine can undo it, resulting in lung collapse and suffocation.

In the United States, every child under seven years is required to get combined DTaP vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough. This program has effectively reduced the U.S. death rate from 581 lockjaw deaths in 1947 to eleven in 2003. (A booster is recommended every ten years throughout adulthood.)

Before the vaccine was invented in the 1920s, tetanus killed thirty thousand people a year in the United States.