Self-Congratulatory CSP Cartoon before #Safety2016

To regain my sense of self and creativity, I decided to draw a congratulatory manga about passing the Certified Safety Professional (CSP) exam last week. 

Here's the pencil sketch version:

Pencil sketch of "Industrious Hygienist vs. CSP Exam"

Here's the fully inked version:

Ink (black and white) version of "Industrious Hygienist vs. CSP Exam"

I'm particularly proud of the left hand middle panel ("Just freaking relax already!") because the ink work turned out really crisp and it has a lot of emotion.

Below is the full color version of the manga, with Safety 2016 (#Safety2016) coloring on the right-hand side, since that is the next "beast" I plan to conquer.

Full color version of "Industrious Hygienist vs. CSP" - See you at Safety 2016!

My colleague/friend/mentor also brought me some lovely flowers in celebration of passing the CSP exam, so I thought I would showcase her creativity and kindness as well.

Flowers with card: Creative, Smart, Perfection. 

Check out my previous blog post for my plans while attending #Safety2016 in Atlanta.

Plans for #Safety2016 in Atlanta

Now that the CSP Beast has been conquered, I'm making my plans for #Safety2016 in Atlanta. Safety 2016 is the professional development conference and exhibition for the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE). 

Here's the tentative schedule of events for the Industrious Hygienist:

Saturday - June 25, 2016

Attend the ASSE Council on Practices and Standards as the Industrial Hygiene Practice Specialty proxy. 

Sunday - June 26, 2016

Attend the ASSE Council on Practices and Standards as the Industrial Hygiene Practice Specialty proxy. 

Attend the ASSE House of Delegates as the Industrial Hygiene Practice Specialty proxy.

Attend ASSE Region II party!

Monday - June 27, 2016

Session 518: Safety Excellence - The Big 5 at L'Oreal 

Session 543: Revolutionizing Risk Assessments - Oh My, Oh My, Bowties!

Session 566: A Federal OSHA Safe Patient Handling & Mobility Inspection & Citation

Session 580: Making the Fall Protection System Fit the Workplace

Tuesday - June 28, 2016

Session 605: Practicing Emergency Preparedness - The Key to a Successful Failure

Session 634: Laboratory Safety

Session 665: 3 A's of Ninja Awesomeness - Ninja-Style Back Safety and Injury Prevention

Wednesday - June 29, 2016

Session 707: Beyond the OSHA Log - Safety Management Systems for Healthcare

Session 744: How ISO 45001 Will Drive Business Excellence

Session 769: Remember the Ladies - Gender Equity for OSH Programs*

Join the Industrious Hygienist at #Safety2016

Session #769 is highlighted and underlined because I am co-presenting this session with Dr. Ilise Feitshans. We have an engaging presentation planned that will discuss the concept of gender equity and how it can be integrated into occupational safety and health programs.

Our session is being sponsored by Chubb (thank you!), the Women in Safety Engineering (WISE) Common Interest Group (thank you!), and the Industrial Hygiene Practice Specialty (thank you!).

Piper Pangolin is also coming to the conference, and we'll be roaming the expo hall for more interesting things to showcase in our Safety 2016 recap video. Last year's recap video was fun to make and will show you what to expect at Safety 2016.

A PPE vending machine at Safety 2015.

We won first place in ASSE Region 2's OSH Independent Film Festival Contest!

I'm thrilled to share that our latest Sock Puppet Safety video, "Yay for Lab Safety!" won first place in the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) Region 2 OSH Independent Film Festival. The video starred Piper Pangolin, Lemmy Lemur, and two friends.

Piper Pangolin, Industrial Hygienist for Mad Labs, sharing her love of safety!

Thanks to the judges of the contest for their encouraging votes! The Exceptional Spouse and I will use the prize money to fund our time and materials for more Sock Puppet Safety videos.

As a member of the Arizona Chapter of ASSE, the Industrious Hygienist was a speaker at the 2016 Arizona Health and Safety Summit that occurred this week. The session was titled "Do-it-Yourself Safety Data Sheets" and was part of the ASP/CSP preparation track. The breakout session presented by the Industrious Hygienist was written to provide attendees with the knowledge to review safety data sheets (SDS) for accuracy. It also taught attendees how to prepare labels for containers based off of a SDS that was *mostly* compliant with the requirements of the UN Globally Harmonized System for the Classification and Labelling of Chemicals. The session discussed how to write and update a SDS, since some manufacturers are moving slowly on providing GHS-compliant SDS.

In the breakout session, we used a partially GHS-compliant SDS for a made-up chemical called "Wilburn Superflam 70%" to show attendees how to review an SDS for accuracy. 

SDS for Wilburn Superflam, 70% used in ASSE Arizona Health & Safety Summit (2016).

Using the SDS pictured above, the Industrious Hygienist showed attendees how to prepare a container label (like what would be provided by a manufacturer) using the GHS-compliant SDS. The example hazard communication label for Wilburn Superflam 70% is shown below. 

Example hazard communication container label for Wilburn Superflam, 70%.

Our next Sock Puppet Safety video(s) will probably be Piper Pangolin giving specific sections of the "Do-it-Yourself Safety Data Sheets" presentation, and teaching how to develop labels and review SDS. She'll be educating the internet on the chemicals shown in the "Yay for Lab Safety!" video: Wilburn Superflam 70%, Wilcorr Meltymess 25%, and Wilkil Allifes 15%. Watch for more fun and entertaining Sock Puppet Safety videos in upcoming months.

Sock Puppet Safety - Yay for Lab Safety!

The Exceptional Spouse and I made a new Sock Puppet Safety video starring Piper Pangolin and Lemmy Lemur, including two new friends that have yet to be named! This video, "Yay for Lab Safety!" was developed as an entry into the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) Region 2 OSH Independent Film Festival. I hope to inspire the next generation of OSH professionals to see that safety can be fun and interesting.



The video is a continuation of our #IHFundance third-place winning video, "Cautionary Tales in Lab Safety." In the new video, there is a quick explanation of the OSHA Hazard Communication requirements, including the changes associated with GHS. This is a teaser to the educational sessions I am teaching at the Arizona AIHA Spring PDC (April 7, 2016) and Region 2 ASSE Spring PDC (April 21, 2016) on "DIY Safety Data Sheet Authoring and Revision." Each session will have information tailored to the audience of industrial hygienists and safety professionals.

Piper will also be making an appearance at #Safety2016 in Atlanta - if you see us wandering the expo hall, please stop by and say hello! I'll be co-presenting a concurrent session (Session #769) with Dr. Ilise Feitshans of the Work Health and Survival Project on gender equity in OSH programs. Look for more exciting safety and health videos and art in upcoming months.

To an Educational and Exciting 2016 - Happy New Year!

Since each new year is supposed to bring a time of reflection and hope, I'm taking a look back at 2015 and making plans for 2016.

In 2015 I learned many interesting new things:

• I learned how to make and post a laboratory safety video featuring my Sock Puppet Safety team on YouTube, which won 3rd place at AIHce 2015's IH Fundance video competition.
• I learned what an exposome is.
• I facilitated a key issue roundtable on chemical disinfectants in healthcare facilities at Safety 2015 by the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) in Dallas, TX.
• In preparation for the key issue roundtable at Safety 2015, I co-authored a research article for the ASSE Industrial Hygiene Practice Specialty's web-based publication, The Monitor. 
• I learned a variety of new things at Safety 2015 in Dallas, and brought Piper Pangolin from Sock Puppet Safety to chronicle the adventure. 
• I researched occupational and environmental internships for graduate students.
• I learned about preventing Code Pink incidents in healthcare facilities.
• I figured out approximately how many hours of continuing education I complete every year, to maintain my various certifications.
• I found more spiffy spoggles to add to my collection of PPE. 

To commemorate the past year and embark on a new adventure, please enjoy this view of Camelback Mountain in Phoenix with the Industrious Hygienist and her fearless Alaskan Malamute, Shadow.

Happy New Year (2016) from The Industrious Hygienist!

In 2016 I am hoping to learn more about the following things:

• I'm studying for the Certified Safety Professional (CSP) exam and hope to take the exam in the first quarter of 2016.
• I'm co-authoring a technical paper and presentation on gender equity in occupational safety and health programs, to be presented at #Safety2016 in Atlanta, GA with Dr. Ilise Feitshans.
• I'm planning to apply to a doctoral program in safety, industrial hygiene, global health, or environmental health and will chronicle the experience.
• I'm researching where safety is "housed" within healthcare facilities across the U.S., to evaluate best practices and to assess how many safety professionals are needed based on the size and complexity of the facility.
• I'm working on more Sock Puppet Safety videos about chemical hygiene plans, incidental spill response, and will bring Piper Pangolin to #Safety2016.

I hope you continue to enjoy this blog, the art, and the nerdy safety videos. 

Lab Safety Video with Puppets - Courtesy of Oliver Berger

I came across this laboratory safety video by Oliver Berger while searching for my Sock Puppet Safety video on YouTube. I'm sharing it in the interest of science education puppet solidarity. 



It's pretty spiffy to see the kind of improved video quality you get when working with a team of semi-professionals with real sets. Here at Sock Puppet Safety, we're a nerdy husband and wife team with two iPhones and a cheap Canon FS40 video camera. So we're doing the best we can with the limited tech and time available. 

As a side note, we were going to term our sock puppets as "soppets" (because it makes sense), but it looks like there is already a YouTube video channel called "The Amazing Soppets." We haven't watched any of their videos yet. But we're on the hunt for a new term for our sock puppets. 

Cautionary Tales in Lab Safety - Extended Edition

The Industrious Hygienist has just posted the extended edition of "Cautionary Tales in Lab Safety," our #IHFundance third place winning video from AIHce 2015! 




We hope you enjoy the extended edition, which includes roughly 22 seconds of content we had to cut or shorten from the original video to meet the 2 minute time limit for #IHFundance.

We're working on more videos for 2016, including a short spill response training video, a video about Chemical Hygiene Plans for laboratories, and another general laboratory safety video. Thanks for watching and sharing Sock Puppet Safety!

Sock Puppet Safety - Piper Pangolin at Safety 2015

So, let's assume that you're an occupational health and safety specialist or industrial hygienist looking to expand your technical knowledge and professional network. If you haven't attended a professional development conference before, why not plan to attend one in 2016? 

The Industrious Hygienist is a regular attendee at the following conferences, attending at least one per year:

• American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) - Annual Safety Professional Development Conference and Exposition
• American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) - American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition (AIHce)

Safety 2015 was held in Dallas, Texas. Safety 2016 (#Safety16) will be held in Atlanta, Georgia. The Industrious Hygienist will be co-presenting a concurrent session on gender equity in occupational safety and health programs at Safety 2016 with Dr. Ilise Feitshans and Dr. Aubrey Hb. Check out Session #769 "Remember the Ladies: Gender Equity for OSH Programs" on June 29, 2016 from 1:45pm-2:45pm. 

At AIHce 2014, the Industrious Hygienist was part of the first Personal AIHce Liaison (PAL) program - this fantastic experience was encapsulated in my AIHce 2014 manga. 

At Safety 2015, the Industrious Hygienist brought Piper Pangolin, the star of Sock Puppet Safety, to chronicle the experience of attending the conference. If you don't know Piper Pangolin yet, she is the Industrial Hygienist for Mad Labs as featured in our 3rd Place winning video from #IHFundance - the first-ever industrial hygiene video contest from AIHce 2015. Take a look at the fun times we had at Safety 2015 (#Safety15). 

Piper and the Industrious Hygienist look forward to meeting you at Safety 2016 - feel free to stop us in the expo hall and say hello! 

Code Pink Hijinks

Healthcare institutions throughout the United States use a standardized color code system to communicate emergencies within the organization. Here are some examples of the color code system, which can differ from hospital to hospital depending on what state you are in.

Code Blue � medical emergency

Code Red � fire

Code Orange � hazardous material spill or incident

Code Pink � infant or child abduction

Code Yellow � bomb threat

Code Gray � combative person

Code Triage � internal or external disaster

There was a Code Pink incident this January in Arizona where a new father smuggled his baby out of the hospital by placing the baby in a shopping bag and wrapping the baby in blankets. He first tried to exit through a locked fire door, and then walked out of the main entrance of the hospital, making it back to his home with the baby. The baby was retrieved by the police and placed under protective custody in the department of child safety. Interestingly, some of the most thorough news coverage was from DailyMail UK.

Based on this incident, many hospitals in the Phoenix metro area staged their annual Code Pink drill this year with the scenario of a family member trying to remove a baby from the hospital using a shopping or tote bag, to test their staff response in the women�s and children�s units, as well as security response.

Hospitals frequently use infant abduction protection systems like Hugs� or Cuddlesor MyChild�. These infant tag systems are designed to integrate with a hospital�s existing security technology and raise an alarm if the tag is altered or if the infant moves outside of the approved pre-set perimeter.

HICSCenter.orghas developed an infant/child abduction scenario, including a planning guide, response guide, and incident command chart. The Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) differs slightly from �normal� ICS in that it is written for hospitals and includes components of continuing medical care in an emergency situation.

Some of my favorite movies and TV shows have had baby stealing as a component of the story: Willow (1988), Labyrinth (1986), and Buffy the Vampire Slayer � Season 3, Episode 6: Band Candy (1998). Not sure what that says about my movie tastes. 

In Season 3, Episode 6 (Band Candy) of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1998), the adults of Sunnydale start behaving like teenagers after ingesting magically modified chocolate candy bars sold by the students to raise money for the marching band to get new uniforms. Yes, I was in marching band. I played the clarinet. Yes, I also sold candy and wrapping paper and a host of other things to support the band. The adults have been more or less incapacitated by demons and vampires so that the leading baddie (the Mayor of Sunnydale) can complete a tribute to a local demon named Laconis. Laconis lives in the sewers and eats babies. Buffy and her team go to the hospital to see if any babies are missing, and the staff and parents are acting like unconcerned, self-absorbed teenagers, so much so that they didn�t notice four babies being taken. The babies are rescued by Buffy after the demon is defeated and returned to the hospital.

The tribute of babies for the demon Laconis in "Band Candy" from Buffy S3 E6.

Lesson learned? Chocolate can be used for evil.

Labyrinth(1986) involves the Goblin King, Jareth, stealing the little brother of the main character, Sarah. Sarah is irritated that she�s been left home to babysit and that her little brother won�t stop crying. She wishes him away to a fantasy world ruled by Jareth and a cadre of muppet characters.  Jareth sings a song about it that�s pretty awesome. Sarah has 13 hours to solve the labyrinth before Jareth turns her brother into a goblin. Sarah ends up saving her brother at the last minute and returns to the real world.

The goblins from Labyrinth - image courtesy of muppet.wikia.com.

Lesson learned? Puppets are awesome. 

In Willow (1988), the main character Willow has become responsible for a Daikini baby found by his children by the riverside. A member of the diminutive Nelwyn people, Willow gives the baby to a disgraced Daikini warrior, Madmartigan, after Madmartigan convinces Willow that taking care of the baby would give him a reason to live and turn his life around. Not long after they part ways, Willow is dismayed to discover that Madmartigan�s child care skills were, in a word, awful. The baby, named Elora Danan, is whisked away from Madmartigan by a couple of brownies named Rool and Franjean. The brownies are working to save Elora Danan from being captured by an evil queen who wants to kill Elora to attain unmeasurable power. Willow and Madmartigan eventually team up with the brownies and lose/regain Elora Danan several times during the movie.

Lesson learned? Don�t leave an infant with unqualified caregivers. And Madmartigan is the greatest swordsman that ever lived.

To commemorate our Code Pink drill this year, I drew the following cartoon/manga of a possible Code Pink incident based on the events of Willow. 

Code Pink planning with Willow, Madmartigan, Rool, and Franjean. 

We're hard at work on our new Sock Puppet Safety videos and will share when they are completed. Thanks for your continued reading!

A close-up of the "We stole the baby!" moment since it is my favorite part of the manga:

Rool and Franjean steal Elora Danan from Madmartigan. 

We won! Thanks for voting in the #IHFundance Film Festival Competition!

Great news, loyal readers - 

Our Sock Puppet Safety video won THIRD PLACE in the IH Fundance Film Festival, held as part of the 2015 AIHce Conference. We're excited to use our winnings to make - you guessed it - more free safety training videos on YouTube featuring our adorable sock puppets!

We were excited to see the announcement from AIHA in the special edition of AIHA's E-ssential Connection:

Sock Puppet Safety won 3rd Place in the #IHFundance competition!

If you haven't already seen our awesome video, view it here: Cautionary Tales in Lab Safety

The first place award went to "Take Industrial Hygiene Home With You" by the industrial hygiene students at University of Michigan, and the second place award went to "Guardians of the Workers" by Jesse Zalk, the son of David Zalk, PhD, CIH. Congratulations to our fellow winners!

We'd also like to give our own Honorable Puppet Mention to the entry entitled "What Should I Be When I Grow Up?" by Kate Cole. 

Thanks again for voting and look for more videos in coming months featuring our team at Sock Puppet Safety (including a revelry-filled gag reel):

Sock Puppet Safety - Mad Labs Team: Piper Pangolin, Manny Macaw, Lemmy Lemur.

Upcoming topics include hazardous spill response, chemical inventories, eyewash testing, and other laboratory safety topics. We're working on other occupational safety scripts for general workplace safety as well - and are excited to collaborate with other Phoenix-area environmental health and safety specialists for later videos.

#IHFundance - Cautionary Tales in Lab Safety!

Greetings, loyal readers!

Please take 2 minutes out of your very busy day and check out "Cautionary Tales in Lab Safety," our first ever Sock Puppet Safety video on YouTube. This is a video submission for the IH Fundance Film Festival Contest at AIHce 2015 in Salt Lake City, UT.

The Industrious Hygienist will not be able to attend AIHce this year, but if you are going to the conference, please vote for my video! I promise to make more fun videos if we win. 

However, the Industrious Hygienist will be attending Safety 2015 in Dallas, TX in June. I hope to meet up with fellow safety and industrial hygiene nerds - I might even bring a puppet with me. If you're at Safety 2015, please also contribute to my roundtable at Session #625, "Safety Implications of Chemical Disinfectants in Healthcare." 

The roundtable is intended to discuss the following: "Healthcare associated infections represent a significant challenge to patient safety. To control this emerging threat, new chemicals and novel applications of existing chemicals are being marketed heavily to the healthcare industry. This roundtable will discuss challenges and attempt to build consensus on development of a proactive Health & Safety assessment model which balances staff and patient safety."

Wish us luck in the IH Fundance Film Festival! Vote for my puppets!

Leave us comments on YouTube if there are specific safety and industrial hygiene topics you'd like to see acted by our cadre of puppets. 

Activating the Easter Incident Command System

The Industrious Hygienist has been ridiculously busy over the last few weeks making new puppets and manga (and still working three jobs). To help tide you over until the more educational and interesting posts, here's a 2015 holiday greeting for Easter - or the spring/fertility festival of your choice.

Attempting to make Easter enjoyable as an adult - brought to you by Sock Puppet Safety.

Upcoming blog posts include: writing a tabletop disaster drill scenario with Master Scenario Events List (MSEL), Code Pink shenanigans, why every manager should be trained in incident command, and completing an After Action Report (AAR).

New OSHA Fact Sheet - PPE Selection Matrix for Ebola

I'm excited to share an image of the new OSHA Fact Sheet entitled "PPE Selection Matrix for Occupational Exposure to Ebola Virus." My last blog post showed the process for donning and doffing PPE in support of the CDC Guidelines, and starred my team at Sock Puppet Safety.

The Fact Sheet details the recommended PPE based on a variety of occupational exposure scenarios:

• conducting normal work activities
• casual interaction (outside of a health care setting)
• providing medical and supportive care
• conducting clinical laboratory work
• conducting research laboratory work
• handling dead bodies
• cleaning and disinfecting environments
• performing maintenance work
• handling, transporting, and disposing of waste

An image of the PPE selection matrix is shown below - it looks a bit daunting until you see how it is separated out by task.

OSHA's PPE Selection Matrix for Occupational Exposure to Ebola Virus.

So, for a task like handling, transporting, treating, and disposing of waste that is suspected or known to have Ebola Virus contamination (considered Category A waste by the U.S. Department of Transportation), the following PPE is recommended according to the selection matrix:

• Typical precautions/PPE normally used for the work task
• Dedicated clothing (uniforms/scrubs/shoes)
• Gloves, double (nitrile + heavy duty + puncture-resistant)
• Face mask (e.g., surgical mask)
• Face and eye protection (e.g., shield/goggles)
• Fluid-resistant gown
• Fluid-resistant coveralls
• Fluid-resistant shoe and boot covers high enough to cover lower leg

The list above is the kind of PPE that would be worn by environmental services workers or waste collection workers in hospitals and other settings, as well as DOT-permitted waste disposal and collection company workers. 

Thanks to OSHA for providing such a useful resource!

Sock Puppet Safety: Donning and Doffing PPE for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Infection Prevention

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released improved procedures for donning (putting on) and doffing (taking off) personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers caring for a patient with suspected or confirmed Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). They have also released some pretty comprehensive video training to show the donning and doffing procedures.

These procedures are explained using two different types of respirators depending on the respirators the hospital may have available:

Image #1: PAPR, image courtesy of the CDC (www.cdc.gov).

Image #2: N95 Respirator, image courtesy of the CDC (www.cdc.gov).

• Powered Air Purifying Respirator (PAPR): A PAPR with a full face shield, helmet, or headpiece. Any reusable helmet or headpiece must be covered with a single-use (disposable) hood that extends to the shoulders and fully covers the neck and is compatible with the selected PAPR. See Image #1. 
• N95 Respirator: Single-use (disposable) N95 respirator in combination with single-use (disposable) surgical hood extending to shoulders and single-use (disposable) full face shield. See Image #2.

The CDC reminds hospitals that: "If a NIOSH-certified PAPR and a NIOSH-certified fit-tested disposable N95 respirator is used in facility protocols, [the hospital must] ensure compliance with all elements of the OSHA Respiratory Protection Standard, 29 CFR 1910.134, including fit testing, medical evaluation, and training of the healthcare worker." Since flu season is already upon us, and many hospitals have already started their annual fit testing requirement for use of N95 respirators, this should not be an increased burden on the hospital. 

I watched some of the CDC/Johns Hopkins Medicine videos for EVD PPE donning and doffing and quickly realized that many healthcare workers would start to "zone out" during this web-based video training. This lack of attention during training will be a challenge for hospital administrators, since most hospitals do not have the resources (time or personnel) available to do repeated hands-on training activities. The CDC used to have a poster of the steps for donning and doffing PPE, but it has not been re-released since the new, more comprehensive guidelines were published on October 20, 2014. 

So I decided to make my own PPE posters starring my team at Sock Puppet Safety (more info on that new project later). These posters were designed using the October 2014 CDC guidelines, with a handmade puppet with removable PPE. That's one of the other challenges that hospitals are facing - how to train healthcare workers in donning and doffing without using up all their supplies. Many manufacturers have the CDC required PPE on backorder and many hospitals only have enough to last a few days to care for one patient.

This Infectious Disease PPE Training Poster is brought to you by Sock Puppet Safety - starring Dr. Plurdistein (trained observer) and Peter (shown in proper PPE). 

(As a side note, Peter is named after Peter Piot, the "virus detective" who first unraveled the mystery of Ebola in 1976.)

Here's the front side of the DONNING poster.

Donning PPE (N95 Respirator option) for Ebola Virus Disease, front side. 

Here's the back side of the DONNING poster.

Donning PPE (N95 Respirator option) for Ebola Virus Disease, back side.

Here's the front side of the DOFFING poster.

Doffing PPE (N95 Respirator option) for Ebola Virus Disease, front side.

And, finally, here's the back side of the DOFFING poster.

Doffing PPE (N95 Respirator option) for Ebola Virus Disease, back side.

The donning and doffing protocols are particularly important to reduce the risk of infection of the healthcare worker providing care to the suspected or confirmed EVD patient. 

The waste associated with the EVD patient must be carefully controlled and the donning and doffing procedures are important to reduce the risk of transmission via direct contact with blood and bodily fluids.

The picture above shows EVD as the blue microbes in the mock DOT Category A waste container - these blue microbes are actually Penicillium (Giant Microbes) since they're all I had on hand at the time, but you get the idea. The Ebola Giant Microbe was sold out and won't ship until 12-10-2014.

When a healthcare worker leaves an EVD patient room, they are likely to be covered in Ebola virus from splashes of blood and bodily fluids.

If the donning and doffing procedures are carefully followed, the EVD potential exposure is significantly reduced.

If donning and doffing procedures are not carefully followed, unintentional exposure can happen. In the case of EVD, sharing is NOT caring. 

And yes, those are static-reducing laundry balls that have been broken in half by my overeager Alaskan Malamute. The laundry balls make great fake microbes.

If, for some weird reason, you like the posters and want to use them for training or entertainment purposes, send me an email and I'll be happy to share them. The posters are higher resolution than the images in this blog post.

Happy start to the holiday season from The Industrious Hygienist and her team at Sock Puppet Safety!

Meet the team at Sock Puppet Safety - you'll be seeing more of them in the next few months.

Feeding my indie beast...big changes ahead!

Exciting news: the Industrious Hygienist has decided to take the plunge and venture out on her own in the perilous world of consulting. Meet Spore Consulting, LLC.

Why Spore?

Spore Consulting, LLC ("Spore" for short) embodies the idea of a microbial spore. Bacteria form spores to help them get through tough times and fungi have spores as part of their reproductive cycle. In fungi, spores are small biological particles that contain everything the fungi needs to reproduce when conditions are right. 

So, we figured Spore stands for: small, resilient, everything you need for success. 

In addition to occupational and environmental health & safety consulting, the Industrious Hygienist will be working more on creative (i.e. nerdy) things:

• Sock Puppet Safety 
• Safety educational videos featuring sock puppets, to be posted on YouTube
• Steampunk fiction featuring the Industrious Hygienist 
• Safety checklists and safety posters that are visually appealing
• Industrious Hygienist mangas

So stay posted and watch for more fun stories and cartoons. 

Mushrooms = fungi. Photoshop is a dangerously fun thing.