**FIRST EMAIL**/Safety At the Events, NEW Eye and Face Protection Policy and Student

FIRST General Forum
#1

**FIRST EMAIL/Safety At the Events, NEW Eye and Face Protection Policy and Student Safety Captain Meeting Information **

Greetings Teams:

Safety is a solid investment in human capital that brings tangible rewards to those who practice safe work habits. As you know, the FIRST Robotics Competition espouses safety as a core value and has established the framework for safety leadership, all detailed in the 2007 FRC Team Safety Manual. We are confident you have all been practicing the safe work habits described within, especially during the now successfully completed build period, and we congratulate you - on both counts!

With the first week of regionals about to get underway, we ask your help in continuing to make safety a top priority at the events. To this end, we ask all team members thoroughly review the safety manual located at:

http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FRC/Team_Resources/2007_FRC_Team_Safet_Manual.pdf

There is important event information regarding Safety Requirements, Safety Inspections, Injury Reporting, Personal Protective Equipment and the Safety Awareness and Recognition Program, to name a few. Of special note, the “Personal Protective Equipment – Eye and Face Protection” policy has changed. NEW this season, safety glasses must be worn at all times in the following areas:

* anywhere in the Pit area, including walkways and the pit station;
* the Playing field,
* the Practice field,
* any area where the use of eye protection is posted,

Also NEW this season, the adult in charge of registering the team must show at least four (4) pairs of approved safety glasses at registration, and will have to confirm that he/she has read and understands the NEW safety glasses policy.

IMPORTANT: even though teams will be required to show four (4) pairs at registration, every team must bring enough safety glasses—ANSI-approved, non-shaded safety glasses with approved side shields — for all team members. If persons wear prescription glasses, and they are not approved safety glasses, they must wear safety goggles over them to achieve adequate protection.

If you have guests coming to see your team, you may want to bring additional glasses for them as well. FIRST will have limited numbers of safety glasses to loan to visitors (only).

Finally, we want to remind teams to wear closed-toed shoes, wear work gloves when necessary, and to use earplugs, which are available at the Pit Administration Station, when needed.

Student Safety Captain Meeting:

There will be a safety meeting for all Student Safety Captains at 10:00 am on Thursday at the events. Details on the meeting location will be provided at each event. Additional information about the Student Safety Captain can be found in the 2007 FRC Team Safety Manual, page 2.

If you have any questions please contact us at frcteams@usfirst.org.

We wish you all a Fun and Safe time at the events this season!

Go Teams!

#2

I should also add to avoid wearing shorts. All my labs in college require the wearing of pants for various reasons, and I think more teams should look into inforcing this rule. Sure, FL is hot, I know, but those sharp parts won’t leave such a bad cut if you are wearing denim (ask Dean!)

#3

just ask team 1574
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/27382?

#4

This is news to me. I checked the FRC Safety Manual and the At The Events section of the manual, and I can’t find any part of either that mandates this. I get where they’re coming from–they want us to have approved safety glasses–but I hope this gets added in a Team Update to make it crystal clear.

(Unless, of course, it’s already in the manual and I’m just looking in the wrong spot.)

#5

I’m still pretty disappointed that we have not seen an update allowing for shaded safety glasses while on the playing field.

#6

This safety glass thing is confusing me. Apparently, tinted is okay, like light amber or yellow, but the definition of shaded is confusing. I wear a clear pair over my glasses, but quite a few people on my team wear a sort of gradient-mirror tint, where it’s a little bit shaded/tinted (but only a little), but in the bottom half of the lens, it’s pretty clear. Overall light transmission is only cut down a very little bit, and one can argue that it cuts down glare.

I understand that this sort of tinting is meant for outdoor use, but some of my teammates have been using the same pair for the last 3 years, so they do have some sentimental value. It’s just that they sit on the fence between “shaded” and “tinted”.

#7

To me, the rules regarding safety glasses make complete sense, except for the rather vague part about “tinted” and “shaded”. You can lose an eye for life it an object goes the wrong place.

As far as shorts, I find it hard to see a problem. The worst that could happen is that you might get a cut or solder burn that would take a few days to heal, but which might be prevented by wearing jeans. Our competitions are not like most labs one might attend in college. We’re not pouring sulfuric acid, after all, and a small burn from a solder splash heals quickly. I know that from years of experience.

#8

Also NEW this season, the adult in charge of registering the team must show at least four (4) pairs of approved safety glasses at registration, and will have to confirm that he/she has read and understands the NEW safety glasses policy.

Ugh, I wish my wireless card had worked at Boston… one quick search of CD lead me to this… while I spent two hours scouring the rulebook & searching the Q&A pdf to figure out where this came from at registration.

I have to agree with Billfred, this SHOULD be a rule in the manual if they are going to require it of teams. It was frustrating and felt like another “made up rule”. It is of course my fault for not entirely reading this email when I got it, but it wasnt enforced at FLR, and pit admin at Boston couldnt point me to where the rule came from. (there is also some checkbox that says I have read the safety glass policy, but I was completely unaware of a specific safety glass policy).

And what is the point of the 4 sets? why not enough for all your team in the pits? or 20? or 13? Oh well… teams, remember to bring your safety glasses to registration!

#9

Driving team possibly?

#10

At MWR, my team leader pulled two other mentors and I aside and used us as examples. I did know about this before hand from this thread, but didn’t understand why they only needed four. We all had different safety glasses on so that couldn’t have told them our team had a massive amount of them (we did, 95% of which were scratched all to heck).

#11