Massachusetts State House Meeting
Yesterday, September 29th, I attended a meeting at the Massachusetts State House focused on regulating floor finishing and floor finishes in Massachusetts as a result of three floor finishers deaths in the past year.
The title of the meeting was “Protecting workers and homeowners from wood floor finishing hazards in Massachusetts”. It was co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Floor Finishing Safety Task Force, a group of five state and local interest groups as well as two state representatives and three state senators. In attendance were several contractors, distributors and finish manufacturers as well as many neighborhood interests. The focus of the group is lacquer sanding sealers and other flammable products.
The background information discussed the low cost and fast dry of these products which brings about low end competition and the lack of training available and non-English labeling on finish products. The aim of many present was to eliminate all solvent products since waterborne products offer all the advantages with none of the hazards. Three floor finishers died in lacquer fires ignited by pilot lights.
The state representatives would like to see licensing of floor finishers put into place while others feel that significant safety and application training can be and is available from our industry.
This group began meeting a year ago and are presenting many recommendations. I plan to attend as many of these meetings as I can. This is a subject that can have far reaching national, industry implications.
Bill Price
Yesterday, September 29th, I attended a meeting at the Massachusetts State House focused on regulating floor finishing and floor finishes in Massachusetts as a result of three floor finishers deaths in the past year.
The title of the meeting was “Protecting workers and homeowners from wood floor finishing hazards in Massachusetts”. It was co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Floor Finishing Safety Task Force, a group of five state and local interest groups as well as two state representatives and three state senators. In attendance were several contractors, distributors and finish manufacturers as well as many neighborhood interests. The focus of the group is lacquer sanding sealers and other flammable products.
The background information discussed the low cost and fast dry of these products which brings about low end competition and the lack of training available and non-English labeling on finish products. The aim of many present was to eliminate all solvent products since waterborne products offer all the advantages with none of the hazards. Three floor finishers died in lacquer fires ignited by pilot lights.
The state representatives would like to see licensing of floor finishers put into place while others feel that significant safety and application training can be and is available from our industry.
This group began meeting a year ago and are presenting many recommendations. I plan to attend as many of these meetings as I can. This is a subject that can have far reaching national, industry implications.
Bill Price
