Lili Krakowski on sat 6 sep 08
I just heard from some one who really knows, that some schools
and colleges have been cited/fined by OSHA or EPA for studio
dirt. Aha! That should be a great waker upper for
administrators!!
Lili Krakowski
Be of good courage
Joseph Herbert on sat 6 sep 08
A great wake-up call for anyone who has a clay studio and an employee.
Since OSHA is intended to protect workers, a dust laden work place, even if
it is in a school, is a concern. Interestingly, the OSHA regulations would
not really apply to the students, they are not employees.
The widest ranging example of these workplace enforcements is the ban of
smoking in public places. Not because I don't like smoke, but because the
workers in the airplanes, restaurants, and bars are endangered by the
constant presence of second-hand smoke.
Even if the employee himself is largely the cause of the dust, the employer
is ultimately responsible for providing a safe workplace. If draconian
measures must be taken to force the employee to meet requirements, so be it.
Think of the responses to similar respired hazards - asbestos or mold
spores. Think of the results of the lack of response, black lung, brown
lung (cotton mills), and silicosis from hard rock mining.
If one considers the fact that low-fired white bodies are often half talc,
and no talc is absolutely free from some asbestos fiber contamination, the
issue of respired clay body dust becomes more interesting. Many school art
teachers select low-fire white bodies because the glaze colors look better,
the material fires faster, and it look nice. Few of them know what exactly
might be in there, and in the air, if the cleanup is not frequent and
thorough.
Joe
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Lili Krakowski
Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2008 8:18 AM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Oh giggle giggle snicker! About clean studios.
I just heard from some one who really knows, that some schools
and colleges have been cited/fined by OSHA or EPA for studio
dirt. Aha! That should be a great waker upper for
administrators!!
Lili Krakowski
Be of good courage
John Post on sat 6 sep 08
> The widest ranging example of these workplace enforcements is the
> ban of
> smoking in public places. Not because I don't like smoke, but
> because the
> workers in the airplanes, restaurants, and bars are endangered by the
> constant presence of second-hand smoke.
OSHA almost got this right. I love it that you can't smoke in
airplanes and public buildings but it really pisses me off that I have
to walk through hundreds of cigarette butts on the ground and the 4 or
5 smokers that are huddled right outside the front door of most public
buildings when it's cold out.
I have a simple solution to help people quit smoking. NO INSURANCE
coverage from the government or your employer. You wanna smoke, fine,
but we as a society aren't going to subsidize the financial train
wreck and burden on our nation's health resources that happens at the
end.
> Many school art
> teachers select low-fire white bodies because the glaze colors look
> better,
> the material fires faster, and it look nice. Few of them know what
> exactly
> might be in there, and in the air, if the cleanup is not frequent and
> thorough.
>
> Joe
Joe you are 100% right on this. I am not a fan of those talc bodies
in the hands of art teachers. They crack and warp when drying and are
not very forgiving when it comes to working properties. They also
don't have much strength after the firing. The only thing those talc
bodies have going for them is that they are white.
If art teachers like the look of bright low-fire glazes, I think they
would be better off firing a terra cotta body to cone 1 with a white
majolica glaze over the top. Almost all low fire glazes look great
over the cone 1 white glaze I have listed on the recipe page of my
glaze website. The kids dip their work into the white glaze and when
it dries, they brush one coat of the colored low-fire glazes over the
top. Mix and match. They can get a whole rainbow of colors on their
work and any places where they miss with the low fire glazes, the
glossy majolica glaze covers it.
Every single time I go to a new building in my district I have to
vacuum out the kiln from all of the exploded shards. It appears that
all of the teachers who fire those talc bodies in my district take
them up too fast and then leave the kiln a mess. Their rooms are also
a mess.
It appears that for many right brain creative types, cleaning isn't
high on the priority list.
I keep my classrooms immaculate. If you want to accomplish a lot in a
classroom it needs to be organized and have a well laid out work flow.
Since I have been at one of my elementary buildings for the last 6
years, this year I had the students who I had last year get up and
explain how the room works to the new kids this year. Every class
from 2nd through 6th grade had no problem explaining the clean up
procedures, the class signals, which sinks we use for what, how to use
the bathroom passes etc.
There is a theory they used to clean up New York's subways and urban
areas. It is called the "broken window theory". They started
cleaning all of the subway trains each night. Anytime new graffiti
appeared it was washed off right away. The broken window theory holds
that if a neighborhood has one broken window, it communicates that no
one cares what happens and then more vandalism occurs. If the
neighborhood is pristine, then any vandalism sticks out like a sore
thumb. People are aware of their surroundings and are less likely to
vandalize a neighborhood in pristine condition than one that is run
down.
I think the same thing applies to art rooms / studios. If you keep it
clean and well organized, students are less likely to mistreat it. I
never have kids throw clay in my classrooms. Ever. I took over one
room where there must have been 100 clay wads on the ceiling and on
every shelf kids threw their black ebony drawing pencils. I knew what
kind of teacher was working there the previous year, ineffective.
When a kid misuses the material in my room, they are done for the day
on that project. They can be as creative as they want with the
materials but if they deliberately destroy or misuse something, they
sit out that day. There is no bigger penalty that I could impose than
having them sit away from their classmates and watch as the rest of
the class works in clay. I have never had a kid sit out twice. Once
is enough to learn to respect the studio.
John Post
Sterling Heights, Michigan
:: cone 6 glaze website :: http://www.johnpost.us
:: elementary art website :: http://www.wemakeart.org
Denise St Laurent on sat 6 sep 08
--- In clayart@yahoogroups.com, John Post wrote:
>
> OSHA almost got this right. I love it that you can't smoke in
> airplanes and public buildings but it really pisses me off that I
have
> to walk through hundreds of cigarette butts on the ground and the 4
or
> 5 smokers that are huddled right outside the front door of most
public
> buildings when it's cold out.
>
> I have a simple solution to help people quit smoking. NO INSURANCE
> coverage from the government or your employer. You wanna smoke,
fine,
> but we as a society aren't going to subsidize the financial train
> wreck and burden on our nation's health resources that happens at
the
> end.
>
Dear John,
Pandora's Box is now open. As an ER Nurse with 30 years experience
and having worked from Texas to New Hampshire let me just say what
really "pisses me off" are the drunks who by far injure more innocent
people and drain our nation's health resources as
much as if not more so than the smokers. Smokers don't get lung
transplants but they'll give a new liver to an alcoholic. Don't
believe me, think about Larry Hagman.
It's the drunk, driving down the road who takes out the mother and
her two children. Or it's the businessman who took clients to lunch,
had a couple and now he's on his way back to the office to work who
tells the police officer " Officer, I'm not drunk I only had two
Manhattan's", "the kid didn't look and just stepped out in front of
me".
Don't get me wrong, I have a glass of wine or cocktail now and then
(and I don't drive afterwards)
But what really gets to me is blaming everything on the smokers
and "second hand smoke" but no one does a thing when it comes to
alcohol. Many times alcohol takes out more than the one
individual who is doing the drinking. You want to drink than don't
drive and if you do and you get caught I say even first offense, 30
days in jail, license gone for a year and if you re-offend than
license gone for life. Can't get to work, ride a bike but we as a
country have got to start making it much tougher on these people.
Just one more example and then I'll shut up, I promise.
A women is closing up her small neighborhood grocery at 7 p.m. one
summer evening, she's outside rolling up the awning, talking with her
last customer. Along comes a van with a women, drunk, behind
the wheel. Plows into them both killing the man and crippling the
women for life. The driver was arrested, arraigned, and let out on
bail until trial. Trial came and she was given two years. This was
this women's 13th DUI. This is not fiction, it's fact. I took care
of the store owner as a trauma. Not a pretty site.
Denise St Laurent
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