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American Laundry News - April 2013

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APRIL 2013

PATERSON, N.J. — The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Brite Services Inc., doing business as Star Laundry, for 39 serious safety and health violations found at its commercial laundry facility in Paterson, the agency reports. Inspectors were prompted by a complaint alleging the company would not allow workers to leave the building during an emergency. Proposed penalties total $164,700. OSHA found electrical hazards and an obstructed and improperly marked exit route, the agency says. Some of the alleged violations include: • Allowing employees to potentially be struck by traffic while transporting laundry bins from one building to another while crossing a public street. • Failing to provide a cover and guardrails for open pits, and a handrail for the stairway. • Failing to evaluate the workplace for permitrequired confined spaces, to post signs informing workers of confined spaces, and to develop a written confinedspace permit program. Brite Services was given 15 business days from receipt of the citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA, or contest the citations and proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review ALN Commission.

Volume 39, Number 4

CHICAGO — Those who manage laundry/linen services or textile rental firms find that tracking and counting the goods streaming in and out of their plants improves productivity and inventory control. Yes, washing, drying and finishing goods for an end-user or client is only part of a professional launderer’s job. Keeping track of the linen, garments or mats flowing into and out of their facility is just as important. So, how does a laundry go about tackling that task in the most efficient way possible? RFID SYSTEMS

Radio-frequency identification, or RFID, first used for item tracking and access-control applications, made its way into the textile service industry in the 1990s. Key components of an RFID system generally include a tag or chip (packaged into a rugged plastic casing specially designed to withstand harsh industrial laundry processes), an antenna connected to a reader, and a reader connected to a software system that collects and manages the data collected. The tag or chip is affixed to a garment or

(Photo: © iStockphoto/Amanda Rohde)

linen in some fashion. “Such devices come in many forms and sizes, from small wires and tags to tiny chips,” says Ecolab’s Jim Mitchell, who discussed linen tracking while a member of the American Laundry News Panel of Experts. “Using these devices to track linen flow is becoming commonplace, especially with more expensive linens such as uniforms, bed linens and silks.

cleaning elements. There are many instances of organizations using RFID tracking to better maintain their inventories. For example, Four Winds Casinos recently selected InvoTech’s RFID Multi-Property Uniform Tracking System to centrally consolidate uniform inventory, tracking and purchases for See TEXTILES on Page 4

Laundered reusable shop towels pose no health risk to workers: study TRSA-sponsored study refutes claims made by disposables industry ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A scientific study released by ARCADIS, an international research firm specializing in environmental issues, found no evidence that laundered reusable shop towels pose any health risk to workers, refuting

claims by the disposables industry, according to the Textile Rental Services Association (TRSA), which sponsored the study. The study refutes previously published reports by the disposables industry used to frighten workers who use shop towels to perform their jobs, claiming that residues imbedded in laundered reusable shop towels pose a health risk despite decades of use without

any reported issues. “As the trade association representing facilities that process laundered reusable shop towels, we felt we had an industry responsibility to conduct a health assessment to quantify if any real health risk existed,” says TRSA President/CEO Joseph Ricci, CAE. “This study reconfirms decades of experience, that laundered reusable shop towels are not only safe

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Inside Fine-Tuning: Wash Room

Eric Frederick examines opportunities to fine-tune the wash room.

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“Although some laundries use RFID tags or chips for inventorying, sorting and tracking of all linens, having these devices applied to common linens such as sheets and terry may not be practical or economical in your operation.” RFID technology is constantly improving, according to Mitchell, and devices on the market are smaller, more cost-effective and offer greater resistance to adverse

but are the most efficient, costeffective and sustainable option.” The ARCADIS study collected laundered reusable shop towels from 10 different laundering companies and facilities, measuring residue leachability to conduct a quantitative health risk assessment. Towels were incubated in synthetic human sweat to represent the See TOWELS on Page 4

The Newspaper of Record for Laundry & Linen Management

[4]

Panel of Experts

Controlling linen loss is the biggest key to “saving par.”

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[6] Product

OSHA fines laundry $165,000 for safety, health violations

On the trail of textiles

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Late News

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