If
it seems like I pick on the Government a lot in my blogs, you are probably right, but I feel that they pick on me even more. One of our hygienists, who has been
with us for over 20 years, has often made the observation that Government makes
new rules just to see if I will continue to comply or just give it up. I have
always considered it a badge of honor to be in full compliance and so it will
remain. As for this blog it is about the new OSHA (Occupational Safety and
Health Administration) regulation. Most of you are aware of OSHA's primary
obligation is to prevent evil bosses like myself from inflicting pain and
suffering upon our employees. In dentistry, OSHA covers both blood borne
pathogens (infection) and hazardous communications of chemical hazards, Hazcom. There is a major change in OSHA at this time and Hazcom is the change. It is called GHS or Globally Harmonized System. You will have to forgive me but
whenever I see that term it reminds me of an old Coca Cola commercial, “I like
to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.” This change from Hazcom to GHS
has been occurring in stages over the last few years due to President Obama’s obsession
with globalizing the economies. His feeling is that since we live globally and
our hazardous chemicals are sold abroad that we need to be able to communicate
their dangers to people that don’t speak English and cannot read our MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) forms. Therefore, he has adopted for us the 1998
United Nation's GHS rules regarding pictographs. You know those little triangles with pictures
of skulls and cross bones, flames or explosions printed inside of them. These
would be included with the English dialogue of hazards of spills, contaminations, etc (Gee, I wonder if the EPA has these kinds of labels on their
spills in the Colorado rivers recently.) Needless to say there is a huge amount of paperwork involved with all
these changes. Our old Hazcom, which used to be 28 pages long, now is over 100
pages long, and our very thick binder of MSDS forms will have to be replaced completely with the new SDS (Safety Data Sheets). In any event, we'll discuss the importance of all this in my next blog, OSHA Part 2.
Friday, October 23, 2015
Friday, October 9, 2015
Your Donation Changes Lives!
Practicing
dentistry for almost 40 years in Elk Grove with our large family of
patients has put me in what I consider the unique position of observing a
huge number of heartfelt personal stories. Some of those stories I have
already shared with you in previous blogs, but one very special story
came up just the other day that I thought I should once again share with
you. One of our special needs patients came in with a wonderful story
of his participation in the Special Olympics a few months ago in Los
Angeles. He had the singular honor of being picked to be a torch bearer
for the opening of the games. His only disappointment was that he could
not actually participate in the games even though he had trained very
hard in several events. That is because as a torch bearer he could not
compete as the organization tries to benefit as many people as possible. Thus torch bearers cannot compete. Rest assured, he didn’t
complain about it at all. He was just thrilled to be a part of the whole
gathering of wonderful people. Now this patient has been with our
practice for over 13 years and takes remarkably good care of himself
with the help of his family and tremendous support of friends and the
Special Olympics organization. We have on many occasions had the
opportunity to support his efforts both financially and with moral
support and guidance. But he is the one that deserves the special
recognition for all of his tremendous efforts. In speaking to him the
other day, he would like nothing more than to have the support of our
family of patients to help Special Olympics in any way that you can.
Please go to their web site and see what you can do to help this very
worthy cause as it helps special needs patients like ours to be an
active participant in our society. After all this is what makes us who
we are as a great country, a caring society, and very giving
individuals. Thank you in advance for all of your help and we look
forward to many Special Olympics to come. Your Donation Changes Lives!
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