People + Process = Performance

Interesting Products from the ASSE Safety 2013

I attended and presented at the ASSE’s Safety 2013 in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago.  Besides listening to other speakers and meeting new people, the one thing I really enjoy about the conference is the exhibit hall.  There are the usual products on display, such as various PPE (fall arrest systems, gloves, safety glasses, footwear, and then there are some new products that caught my eye.  Here are four that were new to me and definitely have an application in industry:

As a glasses wearer who is annoyed and at times frustrated by foggy lenses at work or play, I am always on the lookout for products that address the fog issue.  There were two products which addressed this issue that wasn’t a wipe on/wipe off product.

For Goggle wearers:  The Haber Eliminator plus fan is a self-contained, fully automatic, humidity control module that converts most goggle brands into a fan goggle in minutes.  Once it is installed in the goggle, you place the selector switch on automatic and forget about it. When humidity rises inside the goggle, a sensor activates a fan and the warm moist air is evacuated which eliminates fog. When humidity returns to acceptable levels, the fan turns off.  The company says its operation is completely automatic.  One nice characteristic is that it is removable and transferable so you’re free to move it from goggle to goggle. Anyone who works in hot/cold environments such as oil and gas workers, steel workers, factory workers, grain elevator operators, etc. would benefit from greater fog protection and in turn greater safety with the use of this product.

For Glasses wearers:  The other anti-fog product were Optifog Lenses in which lenses are made with a patent technology that offers “superior anti-fog properties.  The company states that the special lenses combined with their Optifog activator will provide fog free lenses for a week at a time.  The one caveat with this is that the anti-fog properties only works when the two (Opifog lenses and activator) are combined.  The lenses themselves are not anti-fog.  According to their website, the lenses can be ordered through local opticians.

As someone who tends to spend hours on my feet each day I am always interested in insole products.  Megacomfort insoles claim to be “ergonomic anti-fatigue matting in your footwear”.  That’s a high claim.  I’ve tried other insoles with varying amount of comfort so I wanted to learn more about this product.  According to one of the representatives, they have done several field tests that have “proven” their insoles reduce employee muscle fatigue and pain, and increasing worker comfort.  I was given a pair to try—I haven’t yet done so but look forward to personally putting their claims to the test.

The last product/exhibitor I wanted to mention surprised me the most as I didn’t expect to see, or perhaps was more surprised at how their product was presented.  Ready America had their booth full of emergency preparedness supplies.  This makes perfect sense for people who are in charge of emergency management.  However, the representative I talked to also stated their “Grab ‘n Go Emergency kits/backpacks make a great employee benefit.  He stated that natural disasters can strike anywhere so people who have their emergency backpacks will have what they need to survive for 3 days (first aide, food and water).  I’ve never thought of emergency preparedness as an employee benefit before but after thinking about it and the recent tornadoes, floods and electrical power outages it does make a lot of sense.