VIDEO: Creating a Safer Workplace with 3M Personal Safety Division

Narrator:

Welcome to Creating a Safer Workplace by MSC Direct, featuring the web series "Nothing Stops U.S. Manufacturing. Conversations with Safety Professionals in the Field." Here's your host Anthony Testa.

Anthony Testa:

Hi, I'm Anthony and welcome to another episode of MSC's Nothing Stops U.S. Manufacturing. I'm joined today by Monika Frendt and Diane Dyson from 3M. So welcome ladies to the episode. I appreciate you joining me today.

Dyson:

Thanks for having us.

Testa:

So I want to just start with you know when you think of floor and safety tape and the heightened awareness around social distancing, what has 3M you know done for social distancing in terms of tape and product in a very short period of time.

Frendt:

So our customers have been working across our portfolio to meet their facility needs now more than ever, so as far as the solutions that we've brought together to meet the covid19 requirements, we're looking at all those core components as far as signage, communications and cleaning and that's where 3M has brought the complete solutions for back to business and it's just really been magical because us as 3Mers have all learned what we have. We have so many products and we're able to bring those solutions to help customers during a really difficult time.

Testa:

So you're walking to a factory floor the perception from an employee right is I'm walking in and I have all this beautiful floor marking tape that's telling me what to do or it's you know bright colored versus someone walking in an, employee walking in and it's again, no offense, here I know 3M makes masking tape but is it just masking tape that's down on the floor or you know handwritten signs, things of that nature? Do you think there's an impact on employee morale by having that you know when that employer steps up and actually does that professional type of install?

Frendt:

I would say by the way our basic tapes are up in sales too, I'm saying I'm not offended they are, I'm not, hey that's my brother from another division we love each other but we're seeing those green tapes and the blue tapes do floor marking as well so we love all tapes [Laughter]. But yes, it does, to answer your question I think those impressions, I mean it is nice and professional and we're seeing our number one always has been yellow but more than ever that yellow marking for aisle ways, walkways, traffic lanes, it is a guide, it is a visual guide for where should I be and we're seeing a lot of publications. Two of examples where they're using that yellow to create squares or holding areas. Every facility is using different colors for different areas and customizing it to what works with that plant. There are some recommendations that are used in the industry. Typically in an industrial plant, red is part of like this 5S system that we talk about which means sort, straighten, shine, standardize and sustain, and it's just a nice guide that corporations, companies use with these colors and recommendations and red in a traditional methodology means safety, first aid, um it could be a defect area, scrap area or just a tag area so when you think about that that correlates even to the retail industry that's how they're using it a little bit different in some of the different industries.

Testa:

Diane, so when we talk about slip-resistant tape, what makes that slip resistant, like how does that work?

Dyson:

Technically, traction is measured as coefficient of friction, so a higher coefficient of friction is going to uh mean more friction thus more traction, so with the safety walks slip-resistant tapes and treads they help a facility meet the OSHA recommendations and also the Americans With Disabilities Act recommendations for the coefficient of friction. So by meeting those coefficient of friction standards then you can be assured that you'll have that slip resistance where you need it. The higher the number, the more coarse or heavy duty the product. So if you're in the 200 series it's very fine and then we move to a medium resilient in the 300 series that's going to be a non-mineral topped surface so think about barefoot applications maybe it's in a locker room maybe it's around a pool where you do need that slip resistance. Then we have the general purpose that is a mineral top surface that's probably the most frequently used and then the most aggressive that we have in our line is the coarse product and this is a larger abrasive grain so you would think about putting this in an area where maybe it was muddy, greasy, oily um just need a little bit of extra uh more extreme traffic area maybe it's boot traffic versus just regular shoe traffic.

Testa:

Are there areas of concern where a an end user would over-engineer a spot, meaning if they put the high grit on an area where it shouldn't really be?

Dyson:

I think just by nature people tend to think that the general purpose feels like it's not going to be enough so I want to go up to that extreme, uh bigger looking grit and that's going to be better but a lot of times it's actually too much. The general purpose really is going to satisfy about 85 percent of the requests for just general applications especially indoor say on a factory floor so yes we have seen that. There is such a thing as too much traction and that can actually make you trip so you know it's not just the tape on the floor but it's also the footwear that you have that contributes to the overall level of traction that you're getting so if too much can be not a good thing.

Testa:

From a social distancing standpoint, what 3M is bringing to market, how is the anti-slip floor tape and safety walk, what are folks using that for?

Dyson:

I mean we've really partnered together with the tape division and brought the floor safety portfolios together and for social distancing one other aspect that we found a little bit surprised by and that didn't really think about is the aspect of not just a visual cue but also the feel so people can feel that there's something on the floor because it's a little bit rougher and so not only is there a visual cue with colors and stripes, but sometimes people when they're not paying attention sometimes they're walking um they notice that there is something different down and and then that's another cue for them to make sure they're social distancing.

Testa:

So I'm going to come back to disinfectants because it's a hot topic, you know so there is so much of a crackdown I know 3M does their homework about claims such as you know kills virus it kills Covid you know, what has 3M developed from a disinfectant that you just you know mentioned you know kills Covid mean that's you're huge um can you talk a little bit about that what that product is how you know what's its availability

Dyson:

Yeah, we actually have several products that are EPA approved, they're on the emerging pathogen policy list, and because of the pathogen being so new, of course you're not going to find any disinfectants with labels that have a claim on their bottles right now. So that's why the EPA came out with this emerging pathogen policy so if you were to get the 3M TB Quat ready-to-use disinfectant that um you can use that straight out of the bottle, spray on and wipe, um that would be for the Covid-19 it's a 10-minute kill time. We also have more of a rapid contact time disinfectant that's a three-minute kill time that's a concentrate that the user would mix into a quart bottle to spray.

Testa:

Awesome. Define for folks who may not know what when you say kill time is that when you put the product on it has to sit for that long period of time or it's you can spray it on wipe it and then you just like leave that alone for that long?

Dyson:

Yeah, you actually uh dwell time or kill time, that actually means that the surface needs to be wet and dwelling on that surface for that amount of time to kill the specific pathogen or hazard that you're that you're addressing so it is really up to the end user as to what their needs are, their time frames, what their application is, uh where they are, what type of user they are, if they're a hospital versus maybe they're an infrastructure cleaning workstation, so there's a wide variety of needs out there and there are other similar pathogens to Covid-19 so you would make a comparison and the EPA then grants you that you know that you're on the list and that you're approved for those certain pathogens.

Testa:

How would one go about finding out more information about the product, about the disinfectants, and about the floor marking tapes?

Dyson:

The disinfectants, we have a website that you can go to and it's 3m.com/back to business, it should be really a one-stop shop for all of your disinfection questions.

Testa:

Well ladies, I know you're very busy but thank you very much for joining me today, I totally appreciate it.

Narrator:

Follow us at mscdirect.com for future episodes and more information on operating in our new normal.