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Subject: [DCHAS-L] @acsdchas tweets of the last 24 hours
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 08:09:37 -0400
Author: "Secretary, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety" 		Next by Date:
Subject: [DCHAS-L] GHS and cleaning chemicals
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 15:00:29 +0000
Author: Ralph B. Stuart

From: Samantha D <samantha.dannenberg**At_Symbol_Here**GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Cotton content of jeans
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 08:30:36 -0400
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Message-ID: CAFarhdD-=x7pjaWQQZmc1SMXR7D7ZTQ_Bv9pxnA_FzdZGaNeXQ**At_Symbol_Here**mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To


Kim,
Wonderful question and I can speak from personal (not very scientific) experience. I spin poi and breathe fire and one of the hazards of that is that you almost always hit yourself or graze yourself with a burning fire ball (made of Kevlar attached to chains and soaked in white gas). Anyway, when you're spinning you're supposed to wear natural fabrics (like cotton) or just fewer clothes. I always wore jeans that ranged from real jeans that aren't extremely blended to those weird skinny jeans that are made of blends that you refer to. And again, this is all due to personal experience; I never saw a difference in the jean's flammability.
In my personal opinion, I think you're on to something. I have no idea if the blends would react more with acids, corrosives or bases but when it comes to fire, I would say that you're as safe in blends as you would be in 'old school' jeans.
I hope this helps,
Sam


On Mon, Jul 29, 2013 at 6:44 AM, Jeskie, Kimberly B. <jeskiekb**At_Symbol_Here**ornl.gov> wrote:

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)


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