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It is raining across the majority of the contiguous United States. That means in almost every state in this great nation men and women are hunting around their office, storerooms, sheds, and behind the back seats of their trucks to find their rain gear. And guess what? It's just going to get colder. It's time to figure out your weather and warmth gear for the coming seasons. Don't wait for the first really cold snap to order the things that you darn well know you are going to need in th …

Working at a safety company, I find myself using the gear we stock in non-traditional ways. And I often need to outfit people with smaller face and hands. Luckily gloves often come in a variety of sizes these days. But for folks looking for safety goggles to fit different sized faces, the choices aren't so broad. This past weekend a group of dads and sons headed to the hills for our annual camping trip. Since the plan this year was going to include sling shots and target practice, we …

Noise levels will be high around the San Francisco Bay this weekend. Fleet Week is here and with it the loud, loud sound of six F/A-18 Hornets flying overhead at Mach 1. It's something you can feel through your whole body, but it's your ears that are in the greatest danger. Maximum decibel levels for spectators has been measured between 100 and 115dB, which is pretty darn high. While this level is still in the realm of the acceptable for short doses during fly-over, it is still incre …

We recently had a Pureflo representative in to refresh our memories about these great products. Pureflo helmets are powered air purifying respirators (PAPR) and are great for companies that need to supply respirators, but don’t want to fit test each employee. They are also comfortable and may be easier to wear in tight spaces where the traditional PAPR units with belts and hoses can be cumbersome. Pureflo helmets, because they have a motor pulling air into the helmet area, create les …

Boom trucks, scissor lifts, and other Genie Lift work vehicles are everywhere these days. A question we receive regularly is how workers should hook up their fall safety equipment to the work platforms. Workers operating between 6 and 18 ft. above the closest obstacle, even if they are just passing through those heights, need to be wearing either complete fall restraint or a self-retracting lifeline (SRL). Because the close tether of a fall restraint system limits the work that can be a …

We have lots of folks who call us asking which is the correct 3M respirator cartridge for their job. It's not always easy to know. 3M alone has more than 20 cartridges and filters for different types of work. We'd like to start breaking down the different uses each of these products, and we will start with some of the most popular. All of the cartridges we'll discuss are filled with activated charcoal. Each has slightly different characteristics, so let's discuss which solution is best …

Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for: The PK Safety Halloween Costume List for Grown-Ups! With a little imagination, there are lots of costumes that can be put together using the products we sell on pksafety.com. Hopefully this list will help give you some great ideas for your next Halloween party. You'll find some of these ideas are better than others, and a few are just plain terrible. Just remember one big advantage - we deliver! In no particular order: C …

There are about 20 good reasons you need to make sure you have current calibration gas for use when calibrating and bump testing your gas monitor. But for the purposes of this post, we'll stick to the top two or three. Knowing the expiration of your calibration gas supply is more important than checking that gallon of milk that has been in your refrigerator for the past couple of weeks. Milk has more ways of letting you know it is no longer fit for breakfast. While milk might go s …

Apparently the 11th time is the charm if you're a Bakersfield machine-tool rep with a vision to create a cowboy hard hat. That's how many times it took inventor Bret Atkins to develop a design that would meet ANSI standards and win the all-important approval of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Tired of getting grease or dirt on his snow white Stetson each time he entered a hard hat-required site for work, Atkins began working in his garage on a fiberglass hard hat m …

Welders understand that the fumes and gases produced from their work can lead to serious illness. The danger and amount of exposure to the welders depend on the type of work being done, the rod, filler metals, base metals, coatings, contaminants, as well as the amount of ventilation and respiration protection. We simply don't know everything there is to know about protecting workers from welding fumes. However, there are some common precautions that can be taken to protect workers from …