Health and Safety

• Lowering hot surface temperatures
• Preventing accidental burns

Thermal insulation is one of the most effective means of protecting workers from burns resulting from contact with hot or extremely cold piping and equipment. For hot surfaces, especially, insulation reduces the surface temperature of piping or equipment to a safer level, resulting in increased worker safety and the avoidance of worker downtime due to injury. With today's specification tools it's very easy to calculate the insulation thickness needed to bring the surface temperature of your piping and equipment to safe levels.

In addition to the safety benefits of insulation, NIA member companies take job site safety very seriously and strive to meet the highest standards to protect their own personnel.

The Theodore H. Brodie Distinguished Safety Award

NIA promotes and recognizes safety in the workplace with this important annual award.

• For More Information
• Learn About the 2008 Safety Award Winners

Health and Safety Committee

The NIA is committed to the health, safety and welfare of its members, customers, and the insulation industry. Through professional safety leadership, the Committee will actively promote the highest standards of safety and health excellence, to ensure a safe working environment.

If you are an NIA member and would like more information about joining this committee, please contact the membership department. You may also log in to the Members Only to download committee minutes.

Articles

• Perspectives on Safety Programs from the Safety Roundtable
  Date: October 2008
  Author: Gary Auman

  What kind of a safety program does your company have?

  There are many possible answers to this question, including the following:

  • “I don’t know.”
  • “We don’t really have a safety program, because we have never had a bad injury.”
  • “With the economy the way it is right now, we can’t afford to do too much on safety.”
  • “We’re too small to have a safety professional.”
  • “Our Human Resources person takes care of that issue.”

  Thos...READ FULL ARTICLE
  
  

• The Economics of Safety
  Date: October 2008
  Author: Gary Auman

  The readers of Insulation Outlook are usually involved in some facet of the commercial, industrial, or mechanical insulation business, whether manufacturing, installing, specifying, or evaluating the need for insulation. They are professionals and businesspeople, and they understand the need for a business to make a profit to remain viable. What is your company’s net profit at the end of the year? The National Safety Council estimates that $1 in direct costs from an injury can become $3 to $10 in indirect costs. How much of this can a business sustain and still make a net profit?

  ...READ FULL ARTICLE
  
  
• Fire Safety and Thermal Insulation: Sorting Out the Details
  Date: September 2008
  Author: Gordon H. Hart

  A number of different codes and standards for thermal insulation are related to fire safety—ASTM E84, ASTM E136, ASTM E119, and UL 1790, as well as regulations about fire penetration seals, grease ducts, and so forth. It can seem a maze of confusing standards to those who do not spend much time dealing with fire safety. It makes one wonder whether there need to be so many, and whether there is overlap. What needs to be specified when one simply wants thermal insulation that will not catch on fire, release smoke and toxic fumes, and harm people?

  A True Disaster: the Station ...READ FULL ARTICLE