[tcj103]

I too found that safety was somewhat inconsistent. At Regionals, (Philly and Trenton) safety glasses in the pit areas were pretty strictly enforced, and you would get stopped by FIRST staff just walking around, not near any equipment, and told to put on safety glasses. It was much less strictly enforced at Nationals.

After four days at Nationals, I would probably be suffering from permanent hearing loss had I not been wearing ear plugs all the time. What I find amazing is the uneven application of safety concepts. FIRST never has approached the hearing topic. I'm not sure, but my guess is that the noise levels in the pits and in the Dome exceed OSHA standards when you consider that most of us are exposed to that noise for 9 hours or more.

Don't think that I don't condone safety and safety glasses, I wear them all the time WHEN I'M DOING SOMETHING RELEVANT TO SAFETY. I also have used hearing protection religiously, and after 15 years of working in aviation and flight test, have no hearing loss. My concern is the strict enforcement of a rule, merely because it's a rule, where other practices could use a lot of improvement. In the pit areas, teams (including ours, we're no saints here) daisy chain together power strips to get everything plugged in, which generally isn't a good thing to do.

On Friday, I watched a couple team members throwing a mini-football around, IN THE PIT AREA. Didn't see anyone stopping them, even though one was running for the ball.

On Saturday, I saw a match get stopped at the beginning because a player wasn't wearing his safety glasses. A ref caught it, the player put his glasses on, and they started the match.

Later, during the playoffs, I watched a mentor slide a robot battery about 50 ft, where it crashed into other batteries, and the teams toolbox. But, he had his safety glasses on when he did it. Just so everyone understands, these sealed lead-acid batteries will leak highly corrosive acid if the case cracks or leaks.

My suggestion would be to better define the areas where safety glasses are required, and raise awareness of hearing protection and noise exposure.

Ted