Abby Ferri

The Super Bowl is today, and it reminded me of a message I received from a safety connection a couple of weeks ago. I post a lot about lung health and silica as it relates to construction, so people actually reach out to me frequently on the topic!

My connection, told me that his concrete crew was using a product to mark their layouts, called “athletic field marker.”

He was curious to read up on the product. It turns out that it is a silicate-based powder (limestone), that actually wasn’t the best product for the task the crew was performing – spray paint would be easier to control.

Close up of some warnings printed on the bag of the Quikrete Athletic Field Marker.

The concern we then discussed is exposure for kids that play football, baseball, softball, soccer, and other sports where the field boundaries are marked. Often, kids are sliding into a base or making a tackle (or getting tackled) and get the powdered field marker in their mouth or eyes, and then take it home with them on their uniforms and practice gear.

The Safety Data Sheet for the Quikrete Athletic Field Marker indicates that there are indeed acute and chronic impacts related to exposure.

Excerpt from the Safety Data Sheet for Quikrete Athletic Field Marker.

This is a perfect example of analyzing the task and looking for an alternative product, the best available product, that won’t add more hazards than benefit. Also, consider how this product would be treated in a workplace setting… it would be part of HazCom training, a SDS on site, and discussed during a pre-task plan meeting.

I did a quick search and found some alternatives for marking fields, including this product that advertises it has been tested and used in World Cup soccer stadiums, among other professional and collegiate settings. Another product, Brite Stripe is made of a “trade secret” mix of Titanium Dioxide and Calcined Kaolin, a non-hazardous mixture that requires eye protection when mixing or applying the paint, per the SDS.

What do you think? Have you used the Quikrete product on your jobsites? Do you see school or parks staff applying it to the playing fields in your neighborhood or district?

Now you’re empowered to say something and ask why the product is used when non-hazardous alternatives are available.

Want to streamline your safety inspections? Check out the Safety Reports app, it’s what I use!

Remember how I wrote a post about laptops and how they’re ruining our posture? And then I made a call to action to do better with our laptops in 2020? Well, I have been failing at that, until today.

After a few weeks of neck and shoulder pain that I can’t seem to get rid of, I finally took the (ridiculously easy) steps to enable dictation on my work and home laptops. Lucky for you, I use both Mac and PC, so now you can do as I’m actually doing, instead of just believing what I say (blog). Read on…

For my fellow Macbook pros, or any model Mac laptop, you can enable Enhanced Dication by clicking on the Apple Menu > System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation. When you’re there, turn on Dictation and choose the Enhanced Dictation option. It may take a few minutes to update itself.

I have read that you can use some voice controls as well as the dictation (voice to text) feature, but have not tried that out yet. Here’s some info straight from Apple on how to use the commands.

When you want to dictate text to your laptop, hit the Fn key twice and a microphone icon will pop-up, just start talking normally and the text will appear. That’s how I just typed this last sentence…

To set up Speech Recognition on your Windows computer, hit the Window icon key + H. If speech recognition is already enabled, a microphone will appear and the text will say “Listening.” If further settings need to be changed to enable this feature, that will be noted – just click and change the Settings as directed to enable the feature. Note that if you are using a company device, you may need an Administrator to assist you with completing this setting.

You could also try Apple’s Siri or Windows’ Cortana assistants to navigate your laptop or device by voice. I am an Android cell phone user and use Google’s Assistant frequently to set reminders and calendar entries.

I’m no stranger to using voice assistants, and use my Amazon Echo device in my home to add things to my grocery list, ask for weather updates (sometimes via Samual L. Jackson), listen to my favorite classical music playlist or podcast, check my news feed via Alexa Flash Briefing. The world of voice technology is only beginning to be tapped – and speaking of tapped, Gary Vaynerchuk often reminds listeners that the most downloaded iPhone app in the early days of the App Store was iBeer…and look at our apps now!

Here’s a quick version of this blog in video format:

Want to streamline your safety inspections? Check out the Safety Reports app, it’s what I use!