Doing some back to school shopping this weekend, I had an aha moment.  My traditional go to “uniform” for doing laboratory inspections has always included jeans.  It’s becoming very difficult to find women’s jeans that don’t include some percentage of polyester and spandex (e.g. the magic ratio appears to be something like 70ish% cotton, 2% spandex and the balance being polyester).  My assumption is that these blends would not hold up well to contact with corrosives and are not something you would want on your body during a fire situation.  I’m wondering if this is something that organizations have had to factor into their training in recent years and if anyone has seen actual data about how the blends hold up against these kinds of hazards.

Kim

Kimberly Begley Jeskie, MPH-OSHM

Director, Integrated Operations Support Division

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

(865)574-4945 (work)

(865)919-4134 (cell)