Page 79 - Occupational Health & Safety, June 2019

Say “no” to “no maintenance.” It doesn’t matter that all the cool kids are doing it. Not performing maintenance can have dire consequences.
gas explosions are often catastroph- ic, resulting in worker injuries and death, or destruction of property.”
That quote is from a bulletin1 that OSHA issued in September 2013 titled “Calibrating and Testing Direct-Reading Portable Gas Monitors.” To summarize their findings, I will borrow a phrase from the ’80s . . . . “Just say no.”
Say “no” to “no maintenance.” It doesn’t matter that all the cool kids are doing it. Not performing maintenance can have dire consequences. While I won’t paraphrase the remainder of the bulletin, I highly en- courage you to take the time to read the bulletin in full. They go into very clear detail and reinforce the ground that your contradicting thought started to stand on.
Please don’t look to any gas de- tection manufacturer to give you permission to be complacent about your maintenance. That choice has always been, and will continue to be, yours.
We need to shed light on the “no main- tenance” myth. It is not an innovation or a breakthrough in technology. It’s a promo- tion of complacency. Please don’t look to any gas detection manufacturer to give you permission to be complacent about your maintenance. That choice has always been, and will continue to be, yours. Do the right thing, and bump test and calibrate your monitors. Unless you want to gamble and roll the dice of uncertainly. Just know that the compounding debt can only be paid in the currency of human suffering.
Kyle Krueger serves as district manager at Industrial Scientific.
REFERENCES
1. https://www.osha.gov/dts/shib/ shib093013.html
www.ohsonline.com
Circle 22 on card. See us at ASSP, Booth 619