Are you beingpoisoned by your forklifts?

By Larry Reynolds Service/Parts Manager Crellin Handling Equipment, Inc.

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tions seal their loading docks and warehouse doors to the weather outside, be it cold or hot. If you are operating propanepowered forklifts indoors without proper fresh air ventilation, harmful levels of carbon monoxide (CO) may be found in the building which could cause mild to severe poisoning.

Symptoms range from nausea, dizziness or headaches to brain or heart damage and even death.

CO poisoning is brought on by the incomplete burning of any material containing carbon, such as propane, gasoline, oil, natural gas, coal, or wood.

The most common source of exposure in the workplace is the internal combustion engine, although heating systems can also be a source. CO is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that can only be detected with special equipment which measures air quality, or by observing poisoning symptoms in humans.

Whether you are operating a new, used or reconditioned propane-powered forklift, the safest way to prevent CO threat is to tune the truck regularly, maintain it properly, and have the truck regularly tested for excessive

CO gas at the tail pipe.

Simple maintenance items such as an improperly gapped spark plug can cause CO emission problems. A dirty air filter, as conmon as it may seem. can cause a problem due to lack of clean air mixing ciuring engine combustion. An operator may adjust the carburetor to get more performance from the forklift truck. but it can lead directly into a CO problem. Lack of any service to the truck is worse than high hours of operation in leading to high emission levels. When proper servicing is complete, your forklift service dealer should check the entire system by measuring the CO content of the exhaust with a meter. The maximum allowable U.S. OSHA concentration for continuous CO exposure in any eight-hour period is ll2%c, according to federal law. Since the only warning you may have is someone gening sick or complaining about headaches, you simply can't afford to ignore routine truck maintenance. l Administration. and I request Facr Sheet No. OSHA-87-

For more information on carbon monoxide poisoning and prevention, contact the I l.

Story at a Glance

Regular maintenance is vital in preventing carbon monoxide poisoning from propanepowered forklifts.

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During the last 15 to 20 years, mouldings have for the most part been thought of as a utility product to cover cracks and seams between walls and doors.

During the 1980s, as new home prices escalated, contractors began cutting back on the cost of construction. Mouldings were either reduced in size or eliminated altogether.

This led to the growth of mouldings being sold more for remodeling than in the past. Homeowners love the look of wood mouldings, and if nice decorative mouldings are not in the house at the time of construction, you can bet sometime in the future they will be.

More builders are once again using wood mouldings to add a little pizzazz to their homes trying to differentiate themselves from the competition, or as an enticement to the buyers to upgrade their house.

Architectural styles have changed the types of mouldings used in most cases, back to the more traditional colonial styles. For most of the U.S., the stained look has been replaced with painted mouldings made from either fingerjoint pine or medium density fiberboard. In the West, painted mouldings are now installed in nearly every new home sold today, and in increasing volumes, MDF is replacing fingerjoint pine.

The advent of painted mouldings and MDF in particular is allowing

Story at a Glance

Trends in recent upswing in wood moulding usage ways pro and d-i-y dealers can capitalaze.