Builder Magazine: Modern jobsite safety extends well beyond hard hats and high-visibility vests. As labor shortages persist and worker well-being remains a top priority, manufacturers are developing products that help crews stay safer, more comfortable, and more productive in demanding conditions.
9 comments:
Theater, in many ways, is like many other jobsites, particularly when it comes to festivals and arena-style shows. I find the first product, the tent cover thing, could be very useful both as a rest and cover for workers, as well as a shade for sensitive electronics or paperwork. The water backpack thing and the sunglasses could be very nice, although I think, along with the cover, that they may not be as useful in an arena style show, since most amenities like that are not needed or are available nearby. However, the tool belt is critical for many theater workers, particularly riggers, and honestly, if you need one I would buy a nicer one than that. Finally, the earbuds are probably bad for theater, since you usually need to not have music playing because of constant activity and saftey.
These safety picks seem super useful for construction even if they aren't all applicable to our industry. And when they are applicable, they really are. That toolbelt seems very useful for our work at height, when up in the tension or steel grid. It speaks to our history as theatremakers of stealing just about anything from other industries if we can think of a use for it. Just two days ago, Kevin was telling my class about the surgical tools he uses for working with wire. It does beg the question if industry will ever begin to make specialized theatre tools, and if they were to: would we even use them? I don’t think so. We like using whatever we can get our hands on and tend to adapt to the tools' predesigned limitations. If someone made something that was designed for our purposes, I don’t think we would know what to do with it.
Safety is so important in the theater industry, yet it is so often overlooked. Especially for those of us coming from high school theater, our safe practices have often been questionable at best. I know personally, in high school, I've been sent up a vertical ladder on wheels multiple times, and I had to straddle the top and hold on with my legs because we didn't have a safety harness. OSHA wasn't really a thing for my high school, so I'm relieved to have been learning how seriously CMU takes safety. Personally, I would probably buy the 3M ear plugs and the Arsenal Gear and Tool Storage. I hate having to use disposable ear plugs and would love to have reusable ones. The Bluetooth is a nice plus. Also, I don't have enough pants with belt loops, so having a belt to store my tools would be great for when I need a place to clip my wrench to.
Safety is so important and while this article highlighted tools intended for construction workers, many of these are great for our industry especially in outdoor arena type shows. In theatre I think safety can often be overlooked because most of us started out in high school or community theatre that did not have many guidelines in place to proactively minimize danger. At my school if people were using tools overhead, the majority of the time there were no safeties on them and I don’t think I ever was anyone wearing safety glasses in the shop. At the same time they didn’t know how to keep the kids safe and would make multiple teachers stand around to watch me if I was on the catwalk without my theatre teacher present. Personally I would love the belt with extra loops for tools because I often struggle finding pants with good pockets and belt loops.
I think these safety tools and equipment are extremely important for keeping workers safe and healthy in their worksites. I wonder how expensive this equipment is and how accessible it is. I know that employers are required to buy safety equipment for their employees however some of these tools are more personal wants than company requirements. For instance the 3M WorkTunes, while extremely useful, are significantly more expensive than regular overhead hearing protection. In this case I wonder what sector of the industry has the ability and wants to get these tools. I think for most construction workers these are wonderful purchases which would significantly benefit them but might not be able to justify the extra cost of a water bladder over a water bottle they already own. I think that if these companies could find ways to lower their costs or partner directly with contractors for the benefit of their workers.
An underrated tool industry is the PPE industry. I was particularly interested in the Skullerz Head and face protection safety glasses. Having safety glasses that automatically adjust to your environment makes you so much less likely to take off the glasses as you're working. Specifically, having anti fog technology would greatly reduce my want to take my safety glasses off. Sometimes in the shop I find it incredibly beneficial to wear a mask but then my safety glasses are constantly fogging up and making it impossible to see. They also offer a form of hearing protection that can wirelessly connect to your phone and play music. This one I find harder to get behind because there are several noises that you need to be aware of in the shop to ensure everyone is being safe. One particular example is if you are running the CNC while multitasking on other projects you need to be able to hear if something breaks or the CNC goes rogue.
I was kind of disappointed in this article, as I was hoping for more new and creative products designed to promote safety. The WillScot Quick-Connect Canopy was really interesting, and I would be curious to learn more about it. In the photo it has been connected so that it spans between two storage containers, and in the article it specifies that it is scalable (although this may be referring to the property of being climbable) and that it goes up in just one day. I would be really interested to see what sort of mechanism is used to attach it to the storage containers, I imagine that there is some sort of clamp. The article suggests that it doesn't have to be storage containers that the tent is connected to, so I would be curious to see how their attachment system is designed to adapt to each differing situation. I would also be interested to learn about the process for putting up the workplace cover. The article states that it goes up in one day, but leaves out important information such as what tools are required, how many people it takes, and for what size of cover.
Personally I was not too familiar with job site safety equipment before reading this article. I am used to the generalized depiction of a worker in a hard hat and a bright neon vest. A lot of the innovations presented in this article were reinventions of things that I assume are used on the job site. The vest with the built-in water bottle and cooling system seemed very interesting, especially for hot environments where getting to water quickly may not be feasible. I was also surprised that the ear protection allowed for bluetooth capabilities. I thought at first it would be for workers to call each other and communicate but listening to music seems unsafe in a job site like this. Again I am not familiar with protocol but I know for things like Load-In and Strike, headphones and music are prohibited. I think out of everything the glasses were my favorite as they added a practical element compared to regular sunglasses.
Since our tools project in scenofab, I have been interested in what products out there exist to make labor easier, safer, or more efficient in different scenarios. I really like the canopy setup that can go between storage containers and provides a large area of protected space. This would be especially useful in places like Pittsburgh where it can rain on a dime or super hot places with little shade and need the space for breaks or tool storage. I also really like the impact proof glasses that double as sunglasses. I appreciate equipment that can be multipurpose. It doesn’t make end users choose between one or the other and can benefit from the multiuse functions. I would like to see more of these products highlighted so that I could start building a tool box of things that are super useful or functional. I think there is an endless rabbithole that I could go down with this kind of innovation, and I am super excited to find some cool products.
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