Check out the article below to see why
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
should be the safety rule you follow!

The Three P’s of Safety
by Cheerie R. Patneaude
NASA White Sands Test Facility
08/31/2010

 At NASA White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) employees can be safe on the job by conducting pre-task planning, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), and following their procedures. 

Recently, a White Sands Test Facility employee was attacked by a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake. Instead of pain, worry, and misery associated with a venomous snake bite, Chris Villegas is back at work; worry free because he followed the three P’s of safety.

Villegas was cutting the overgrown weeds and grasses that grew during the very wet monsoon season. The noise of his weed cutter covered the warning sound of a 10-button rattler. It wasn’t until Villegas stepped on the snake and felt the thuds of the strikes against his shin, that he realized his predicament.

How did he prevent an injury? Villegas followed the three P’s of Safety. He pre-planned his tasks, wore the right PPE and followed procedures.  “Snake guards saved my life. They worked for me, and I can assure you that they’ll work for you,” Villegas said.

The guards are stock items at the White Sands Test Facility. Three years ago, the site’s employee safety committees, the Keystone Committee and the Facility Operations and Support Contract (FOSC) Safety Committee, worked together to have the snake guards available to the employees who work outside on the facility grounds, where rattlesnakes are a safety hazard.

After a snake’s bite, the snake guards must be handled carefully, washed thoroughly, or destroyed when damaged. Venom deposited on the guard is dangerous as it could transfer through cuts or abrasions in the handler’s skin. Villegas followed his lead’s advice and was completely checked out by Clinic personnel and was given a clean bill of health!

Michael Brooks, a FOSC safety committee member, said about the event, “even the smallest things our safety teams do can help to prevent accidents, injuries, or even death.”

To learn more about the NASA White Sands Test Facility, click on to:  http://www.nasa.gov/centers/wstf/home/index.html