Joe Garza, SRMC Director The Voice Newsletter January 2024

As a veteran of the construction industry, it is certain that we cannot escape the harsh environment we find ourselves working through. From blistering hot summers to cold winter days that send an icy chill down to our bones, we somehow find a way to work through it all.

In 2018, we found ourselves ill-prepared for a cold-snap and most of our crews did not have appropriate winter wear to make it through a week of sustained, below freezing temperatures. This is Texas, and we’re just not geared for it!

After cleaning out our work winter gear, I decided to pop into a local outdoors and sporting goods store to grab myself a beanie. I noticed a display of hand & foot warmers on the end cap. After some back-and-forth texts with the general superintendent, we agreed it would be a good gesture to grab them for field personnel, so we bought out the store! We had enough hand warmers for the week,

The next morning, we arrived on site and gave a quick tailgate talk about working in cold weather and handed out the hand warmers; everyone was excited and appreciative. Everything seemed fantastic, and then Friday came and one of our safety managers called me.

Hey Jose, we have a guy complaining about a reaction or burn on his hand, and he thinks it is due to the hand warmer. Did you read the warming label on the packaging? Well, no. I didn’t, what does it say? It turns out, there were a few warnings we missed, and it unfortunately ended with an injury to one of our guys.

Once I read the label, I was a bit embarrassed that I didn’t think to look at the label, and I wish I had. We were lucky that the injuries were minor, but our employee suffered from a rare blood condition and the contact with the hand warmer had an immediate effect on him. He suffered from a chemical burn, and we ended up managing this injury for more than a month. Our poor guy ended up with weekly visits with the physician, and we ended up with a recordable.

What we learned:

• Read labels and do not assume others will. It’s our job to educate our workforce.
• Understand both the benefits and the risks of introducing a product.
• Build trust with your workforce, the injured worker could have suffered in silence, and it would have only made things worse.
• Even the best intention doesn’t always end up how you hoped they would. Own it, learn from it and move forward.