His science saves lives

OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, defines industrial hygiene as "the science of anticipating, recognizing, evaluating and controlling workplace conditions that may cause workers' injury or illness. Industrial hygienists use environmental monitoring and analytical methods to detect the extent of worker exposure and employ engineering, work practice controls and other methods to control potential health hazards."

Types of hazards may include air contaminants, chemical hazards, biological hazards, physical hazards and ergonomic hazards. More information: www.osha.gov .

CENTERVILLE — Jack Driscoll's legacy to humankind is substantial: He's made the planet safer and he's made working on the planet safer.

Last month, Driscoll, a Centerville resident, received the Outstanding Achievement Award for inventing the first hand-held photoionization detector (PID) from the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society at the American Industrial Hygiene Conference in Portland, Ore.

A PID uses an ultraviolet lamp to ionize organic compounds that are collected in an ion chamber. It is like a smoke detector, but for measuring low levels of organic compounds.

Just for a moment, stop wondering what all that means.

Instead, imagine hearing this: "Thank you personally for the thousands of lives you have saved."

So said Dave Dahlstrom, a contractor for the Environmental Protection Agency who worked with Driscoll and attended the conference.

Back to the elemental question: Just what is industrial hygiene?

Industrial hygiene is the business of keeping people who work in industry — mainly the chemical industry — safe. Driscoll is the inventor of a hand-held instrument for detecting on-site harmful chemicals. Now in his 60s, Driscoll has had a lifelong infatuation with science. It started with science fiction when he was 11. "An awful lot of people in science read science fiction early," he says. "It really gets you thinking about things. Thinking about science, about going to the moon."

But science fiction was just the beginning.

A good chemistry teacher at Boston Technical High School (now John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science in Roxbury) expanded his science education further. Then he attended Benjamin Franklin Institute in Boston for two years, Suffolk University for two years, and received his master's degree in physical chemistry from Boston University. He later earned his doctorate.

Fire Safety With A Home Fire Safety Code | ATM Machine Prices

Most people have learned a fire safety drill at some time during their lives. Kids learn it in school and adults learn it at work, yet how many individuals put it into practice it at home? If it is worth practicing a fire safety code at work, it must be worth practicing one at home too.

You could adapt and adopt the fire safety code from school for your home use, and just like in school, you will have to make sure that everybody in your household knows and knows your fire safety code. Adopting a home fire safety code will hugely increase your family’s likelihood of surviving a home fire.

The specialists at the fire station are known as Fire Prevention Officers. Fire prevention officers frequently give talks on fire prevention techniques at schools, offices and seminars. It is also often possible to have a one-on-one interview with a fire prevention officer but they will also visit you in your home for more specific advice in some regions.

The chief fire prevention officer has to train new recruits and schedule public buildings for check ups depending on their location, age and usage. You could use the same criteria to assess the risks in your own home.

For instance, older houses tend to have more timber in them and smaller windows which means that it may catch fire more easily, it may burn faster and it may be more problematic to escape from because of the smaller windows, which might even be jammed.

Only to give you an idea of what a building’s fire code can be like, I will give some instances below. You can employ some of these principles to the ‘fire code’ for your home, according to what type of building you occupy.

Firstly, buildings in numerous countries have maximum occupancy levels for each residential building, especially for commercially rented buildings. You may not simply keep partitioning accommodation in order to cram in more tenants (and get more rent). This maximum is a strict law and must be adhered to.

If you live in or rent out a commercial residency, then all exits should be clearly labeled with lit signs which can be seen through smoke. They also have to have a battery back-up in case the wires are burned through. These buildings also have to have a particular number of fire extinguishers and there may even have to be a number of different sorts, eg: water hoses, sand buckets, fire blankets and regular extinguishers.

There also have to be smoke detectors and a building-wide fire alarm system. Ensure that flammable supplies are kept in a safe location and that fire drills are carried out regularly. Everyone must know their muster point and which doors should be closed and which ones left open.

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