Precast Inc. - November/December 2008 - (Page 44) S A F E T Y & H E A LT H Protect Yourself from CONTACT DERMATITIS Wet portland cement is terrific for concrete but terrible for hands. BY SAM LINES 44 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 | PRECAST INC. Dreamstime photo e use our hands nearly every minute of every day. Just try to do something without using your hands. While typing this article, I am using both of my hands on a keyboard. I even know people who cannot speak if their hands are not working properly. Obviously, our hands are very important to our quality of life. If my fingers are sore, or if my hands hurt, all tasks become more difficult – if not impossible. Looking back to my experiences in the precast concrete industry, I used and sometimes abused my hands to perform many tasks. One of these tasks was to make sure the concrete was being made correctly and testing it to make sure it was W within tolerance. I had my hands in fresh concrete daily. At first, the constant contact with wet portland cement did not cause any adverse reactions. But gradually, I began to notice that my hands showed signs of severe dryness, and occasionally the skin would crack open. This condition became worse as I continued to have contact with wet portland cement. For many years I treated the symptoms of the dermatitis without changing my habits. I just assumed that I had to deal with my hands being sore, and that there was nothing I could do about it. And then I realized that this was a condition that I could control if I took the right precautions. The first step required learning what caused the dermatitis.
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.