3M Science of Safety

In this episode, host Mark Reggers and guest Mike Clayton, 3M’s Senior Respiratory Protection Research & Application Specialist for the Personal Safety Division in the United Kingdom continue where they left off and resume their discussion on the subject matter of conducting a respirator fit test. Tight-fitting respirators must seal to the wearer’s face to provide the expected protection. A respiratory fit test ensures that the respirator truly fits and is being worn correctly. Respiratory fit testing applies to all tight-fitting respirators, either full face masks that cover the mouth, nose and eyes and half masks which covers the mouth and nose.

In this episode, Mike Clayton, 3M’s Senior Respiratory Protection Research & Application Specialist for the Personal Safety Division in the United Kingdom joins host Mark Reggers for the first of a two-part series to discuss conducting a respirator fit test. Tight-fitting respirators must seal to the wearer’s face to provide the expected protection. A respiratory fit test ensures that the respirator truly fits and is being worn correctly. Respiratory fit testing applies to all tight-fitting respirators, either full face masks that cover the mouth, nose and eyes and half masks which covers the mouth and nose.

In this episode, Kerry Cheung, Certified Occupational Hygienist and Technical Specialist at WorkSafe New Zealand joins host Mark Reggers to discuss their work-related health strategy. Work-related health acknowledges the interaction between a person’s work and their health, focussing on the way work could impact worker health and the way their health might influence safe work practices. WorkSafe NZ’s work-related health strategy aims to have fewer people experience work-related ill-health to achieve their vision of: Everyone who goes to work comes home healthy and safe.

In this episode, Zach Lawler, Quality and Application Engineer for 3M’s Fall Protection Business in the Personal Safety Division joins host Mark Reggers to discuss fall protection connectors. When it comes to fall protection, connectors are devices that attach the full-body harness to the anchorage system. They are an essential element of any fall protection system used when working at height. They can be single products such as shock absorbing lanyards or self retracting lifelines, or multiple devices working together.

In this episode, Sarah-Jane Dunford, Director and Principal Consultant from Riskology and One Touch Contracting joins host Mark Reggers to discuss safety management systems. Safety management systems provide a systematic business-like approach to managing safety elements in the workplace. They are used to continuously identify and monitor hazards, control risks and to help in the prevention of accidents and injuries. They typically include organisational structures, accountabilities, objectives, plans, policies and procedures.

In this episode Robert Blackley, Senior Health Physicist and Radiation Services Manager at ANSTO returns to discuss non-ionising radiation with host Mark Reggers. As opposed to ionising radiation, non-ionising radiation is a source of relatively low-energy radiation that does not have enough power to ionise atoms or molecules and unable to change the composition of a substance. Non-ionising radiation is found in a wide range of occupational environments, although considered less dangerous, overexposure can pose considerable health risks to potentially exposed workers if not suitably controlled.

In this episode Mike Clayton, 3M’s Senior Respiratory Protection Research & Application Specialist for the Personal Safety Division in the United Kingdom joins host Mark Reggers to discuss respiratory protection equipment factors. Respiratory protective equipment factors are numbers that reflect how much protection a respirator is capable of offering the wearer, for the level of air contaminants in their environment. Knowing the protection factor is essential as it aids in selecting the appropriate level of respiratory protection needed. However, there are numerous protection factors which can cause confusion when choosing a respirator for use in the workplace.

In this episode Zach Lawler, Quality and Application Engineer for 3M’s Fall Protection Business in the Personal Safety Division joins host Mark Reggers to discuss fall protection body harnesses. A full-body harness is a critical component of a fall protection system used when working at height. In the event of a fall, the harness retains the wearer keeping them connected to the anchorage it is attached to while distributing the forces generated in the fall to areas of the body that are more capable of withstanding them.

In this episode Tejaswi Shetty, Microbiologist and Senior Property Risk Consultant at Greencap joins host Mark Reggers to discuss cooling towers and the hazards they can present. A cooling tower is a heat rejection device used to lower the temperature of the water contained within it through evaporative cooling. It expels waste heat to the environment outside the building allowing the cold air to move into the internal parts of the building and cool the structure. Sometimes the dispelled air may be contaminated with Legionella bacteria, that if inhaled by susceptible people, may develop into legionnaires’ disease.

In this episode Robert Blackley, Senior Health Physicist and Radiation Services Manager at ANSTO joins host Mark Reggers to discuss ionising radiation. Ionising radiation is the energy produced from natural or artificial sources in the form of waves or particles. It has enough power to change the composition of substances it interacts with by breaking their chemical bonds. Although radiation has many useful applications in industry and medicine, over-exposure can be detrimental.