A Friendly reminder on sanitation

[Ryan Albright]

Well build season is in full swing and as we work on completing our robot's and practicing....sanitation is probably the last thing on your mind. I just got out of a refresher course at work on blood born pathogens. At my job we deal with a lot of bodily fluids, because at night when people have had a little to much to drink and the mixture of a rocking boat brings up stuff that they had earlier in the day, thats why i am big on keeping stuff clean. You never know on a daily basis what you will be exposed to. This reminded me of a incident that happen last year at the VCU Regional.

Everyone getting sick

While everyone is building and touching stuff it is very easy for everyone to transfer germs. I would just like to remind everyone wash your hands right after you are done working on the robot and clean cuts if you get them and just take the right safety precautions. At the end of all this you don't want to end up like Wetzel in the hospital fighting this off.

Thanks guys,
Happy building

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

Great reminder. There's been a lot of stuff going around here, so I'd also like to remind people to stay healthy during build season becuase you're in really close proximity with people every day, and that's asking for flu etc.

- Genia

[KTorak]

Yep, great idea to remind everyone, I just got over being sick. Alot of people at my school seem to be getting sick recently though, 7 people were out in one of my classes with an illness this week.

[tkwetzel]

Originally Posted by Ryan Albright

At the end of all this you don't want to end up like Wetzel in the hospital fighting this off.

At least Wetzel works in the hospital at VCU now!

[Ryan Albright]

Originally Posted by tkwetzel

At least Wetzel works in the hospital at VCU now!

well atleast he has it "in" now

[SURVIVORfan44]

I will MAKE SURE that no one gets sick this year at VCU...hehehe

[kjohnson]

I sure hope nothing like that happens again. It was bad enough to happen even once. But at least I didn't get sick!

[Adam Y.]

Ehhh... I get sick because of the weather with my allergies. Nothing is going to stop that from happening until I get some industrial strength decongestant. As an aside please don't eat and work the lab and wash your hands when you do go out to eat. The head advisor of my robotics club told me about how he found an open bottle of mercury while searching through some junk in another room.

[sanddrag]

I've been machining (steel) for the last few nights straight and I think the oil and grime has soaked into my skin. No matter how much I wash my hands they still smell like oil and look darker. It does add a little extra "zing" to everything I eat with my hands though.

[SURVIVORfan44]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

It does add a little extra "zing" to everything I eat with my hands though.

Adds a little "zing"!?!




ETA: After I had Norwalk...everything tasted like "zing".

[DarMagi]

Nice is neat, yea yea blood stuff is bad and cleanliness is always good, but a little hard to keep in mind for the high school crowd like myself. lol but yea cleanliness is great !!

[pyroslev]

I was one of the first few to show symptoms. What I had was NOT worth the little "zing"

[Joe Matt]

First, sanitation is very important, second, the VCU debacle is still *VERY* recent in may people's minds, including those in the upper levels of FIRST. They arn't happy about it, so try to respect their feelings, they still see it as kinda a problem that could have been avoided.

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I've been machining (steel) for the last few nights straight and I think the oil and grime has soaked into my skin. No matter how much I wash my hands they still smell like oil and look darker.

Wear vinyl gloves. No joke. My neighbor is an Acura technician ("mechanics" work on Hondas, "technicians" work on Acuras...) who says that his industry has slowly come to understand the risks of your skin coming into constant contact with petrochemicals. He always wears gloves now, and never has grime under his fingernails.

I've thought about the risk of gloves melting when hit by metal shavings, but is it really more dangerous than your skin being hit by metal shavings?

By the way, I am Not A Professional Machinist, and welcome comments and corrections from real pros.

- Rick

[tkwetzel]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

Wear vinyl gloves. No joke. My neighbor is an Acura technician ("mechanics" work on Hondas, "technicians" work on Acuras...) who says that his industry has slowly come to understand the risks of your skin coming into constant contact with petrochemicals. He always wears gloves now, and never has grime under his fingernails.

I've thought about the risk of gloves melting when hit by metal shavings, but is it really more dangerous than your skin being hit by metal shavings?

By the way, I am Not A Professional Machinist, and welcome comments and corrections from real pros.

- Rick

I am a mechanic as well and everyone at the shop I work at wears latex gloves. But I do remember Dave telling us during shop training that we should never wear gloves in the shop because it impairs your sense of touch which is dangerous.