Emergency Preparedness Articles:
- Family Preparedness
- PALS Technology & Clothing
- Experiences With PALS Clothing
- Endorsements & Letters of Recommendation
- Winter and Cold Condition On The Job
Winter Activities & Cold Weather Preparedness
• Experiences With PALS Clothing
To: Whom it may concern
From: Scott Swofford
Date: 18 January 2000
Re: PSTI's TJ's Antarctic EvaluationAs a film producer, I accepted for testing and evaluation a set of TJ's for use during the production of the upcoming IMAX film "Shackleton's Endurance," produced for WGBH/Nova.
Our journey took us from October 17th to November 24th around the course of Shackleton sites in the Antarctic region. We launched shore and marine filming expeditions on South Georgia Island, Elephant Island, and the Antarctic peninsula, and the Weddell Sea. Temperatures were from 18-32 degrees Fahrenheit, but were always accompanied by winds ranging from 20-75 miles per hour, exaggerating the wind chill significantly.
We were issued the latest tufted Fleece and Gore-Tex products from Polartec, including their new R-1 system, and survival suits including flotation manufactured by Mustang. All of these other products worked well under moderate exertion levels, but with either extensive physical activity, or total lack thereof, sitting on rocks and snow they become sodden quite quickly, and their moisture handling curve was extremely slow. After a few weeks, I began wearing only polyester underwear, the TJ's and a non-Gore-Tex wind garment. Extreme physical exertion would soak the legs of the suite, but to my amazement, in about 15 minutes my skin felt dry and shortly after the material was dry and warm. I never found a situation in the many we encountered in which the TJ's didn't outperform all traditional winter wear because of their unique ability to handle moisture.
We had with us several world class ice climbers as field staff, many whom worked for the British Antarctic Survey, and though skeptical at first, they were all amazed at the peculiar characteristics of the TJ system in that environment. I anticipate another journey for this
company again in April, and will lighten my clothing load considerably as a result of my experience with TJ'sSincerely,
Scott Swofford
Producer• Endorsements & Letters of Recommendation
February 10, 1993
TO: Whom It May concern
During the period from July 1984 to the present, I have known Jim Phillips professionally as a recognized expert in cold weather survival. As a Business Development Firm specializing in products for the Military Services, Cypress International had numerous occasions to sponsor Mr. Phillips into a large number of military audiences. Within Cypress, I was the program coordinator for this effort and as such accompanied him on many of the promotional visits. Three main attributes stood out during Jim's presentations. First, he is truly a cold weather expert and enthusiast; secondly, he is an excellent communicator at any educational level, and, third; he is always completely honest and truthful. Our marketing sessions covered all levels of the Military establishment from very senior General Officers to entry level personnel.
Some of the Military activities covered by Jim were as follows:
a. U.S. Army
The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment Germany
The 6th Infantry Division --------------------------Alaska
The 9th Infantry Division---------------------------Washington
The 2nd Infantry Division -------------------------Korea
The US Army Natick Laboratories -----------Natick, MA
Officers of the Army Staff and Secretariat Pentagonb. US Air Force
USAF --------------------------------------------------- Alaskac. US Marine Corps
Northern Warfare Test Center ------------------California
The 2nd Marine Regiment -----------------------Wisconsin
HQ USMC--------------------------------------------- Virginiad. Foreign Armies
The Norwegian Army ------------------------------Norway
The Pakistani Army--------------------------------PakistanAs indicated above, Jim Phillips could always be relied upon to deliver an outstanding presentation, notwithstanding the educational level or level of cold weather survival knowledge of the individuals involved. He is truly a cold weather survivalist and outstanding communicator/instructor/trainer. I would be happy to discuss further as desired.
Donald C. Mullenax
Director Business Development
Cypress International
To: Whom it may concern
From: Scott Swofford
Date: November, 1996
I have been acquainted with Jim Phillips for some time now, but even before formal introductions, I was a recipient of the benefit of his knowledge. Being a documentary film maker in Utah puts me frequently in the harshest of cold conditions. Pain and occasional injury were expected elements of these assignments until we began to employ some of the methods and technologies developed by Jim.
I've stood for eight hours on the frozen bank of Jenny Lake in the Tetons at nearly 20 below, without even so much as discomfort, let alone disability.
Jim is an honest, moral, intelligent person whose own commitment to survival has lead many of his associates to wonder if there is any trial, any setback he could not at least weather successfully, and more likely remain joyful while enduring. His training focuses not just on the skills and equipment necessary to survive against all odds, but more importantly on developing the mindset and character to face all obstacles.
I can recommend him without qualification.
Scott Swofford
Producer, President.
Vineyard Productions
December 10, 1996
To Whom it may concern,
Jim Phillips called and asked if I would be willing to write a letter of reference for him. Well I didn't have to think twice to jump at the chance to thank someone that has been vitally instrumental in the development of my company, as well as one of the most knowledgeable and comprehensive survival professionals anywhere in the world.
My first exposure to Jim was several years ago, I had the opportunity to take his 3 day training course. I must admit I wasn't sure what to expect, I had attended several other similar courses and had left disappointed due to the lack of a wide enough range of knowledge, or most of all an inability to really convey their message so that we, the students, were able to fully realize what was being taught. Well after the first day of Jim's course I already felt better prepared and had learned some rock solid ideas that I use often to this very day.
I think anyone would be hard pressed to find a better teacher in this field, we were literally glued to our seats for the entire 36 hours of instruction, and left disappointed we couldn't have stayed longer. Since that first contact, Jim has been instrumental in consulting with my company in ways of offering real life, rock solid and reliable solutions to my Outdoor, Survival and Preparedness customers. He has even offered his time to be interviewed on our National Radio Show "The Jungle Survival Hour" with phenomenal success. He quickly became one of the most popular guests we have ever had.
I am grateful for Jim Phillips and all that he has done for me and my company. I feel it would be in the best interest of countless people to have his information available on a larger scale. I for one would support anything to do with Jim's courses.
Derek Haynie
President Jungle Outfitters
May 8, 1997
Art Bell
Hi Art,
You and your guests talked about finding people who really are into emergency preparedness and disaster training.
Jim Phillips lives in Pleasant Grove, Utah, and you should have him on your show. Jim is, in my opinion, a world-class expert on emergency preparedness and disaster response training. He knows survival tactics for winter, spring, summer, and fall and his specialty is cold weather emergencies and winter camping preparedness.
I listen to your show all the time and I sincerely think Jim would educate, entertain, and inform your listening audience. Jim is articulate, educated, talented and has an incredible gift to teach people how to have patience, courage, and positive attitude and to be resourceful and self-reliant, not just in emergencies but in every hour of every day of our lives.Ken Kutac
Senior Electrical Engineer
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos, NM 87545
Dec. 13, 1996
Peterson Equipment Company, a snowcat dealer for over 30 years in the Rocky and Intermountain Regions, has offered, as a benefit to their customers, a service and operating seminar. For the last several years they have included a course in Winter Survival given by J.P. Associates. Jim and his staff have proven to be the highlight of these seminars. His presentation is direct and all encompassing, harmonious and understandable.
Participant comments, such as "I have better prepared myself in the event of an emergency due to this seminar and survival course" and "I thought the seminar and survival course was excellent, a real eye opener, I learned a lot and will share this with others." Peterson Equipment will continue to have JP Associates as a very beneficial part of our training seminar.Best Regards
Bill Grewe
Peterson Equipment Company• Winter and Cold Conditions On The Job
Winter and Cold Conditions On The Job
by, Jim G. Phillips
The Hidden Costs of Cold Weather Ignorance
The Typical View
Over the years JP Associates has worked with a wide variety of clients in many different industries.
In the beginning the primary issue was winter safety and survival. Major emphasis was placed on survival for individuals caught in unexpected and potentially life threatening situations. This mind set of "survival" is still the most common focus of industry.
Safety, survival, and the prevention of injury in the cold are still significant factors in the JPA programs. However, the scope of the training and the course content has been developing to meet the needs of different industries.
More Than Just Survival
[1] Injury avoidance and emergency prevention is paramount in our programs. If the individuals are properly trained, equipped and thinking differently, the results will be: 1- different behavior, 2- different skills, and 3- different outcome. In the long run prevention is always far more cost effective than treatment.
[2] With employees properly trained in "Cold Weather Livening," (a change in how people perceive, prepare for and act in the cold) one of the greatest benefits to a business is significantly improved productivity. In some of the more severe and rigorous situations huge improvements in productivity can be demonstrated.
Examples:
• Alaska Pipe Line; maintenance personnel could only work outside for 2 hours and then needed warm-up times of 1 to 2 hours. Following changes implemented by JPA principles and recommended equipment the workers could stay on the job an entire shift of 8 to 10 hours.
• In Minnesota; exposed heavy equipment operators could only work continuously for 1 to 2 hours before requiring long warm-up breaks. There were numerous days in the dead of winter when the men were furlough until the temperatures warmed up. After adopting the principles and recommended equipment, the workers could stay on the job for a full 8 hour shift, without any shutdowns for cold weather.
• In Labrador; power plant personnel could remain outside as long as necessary for maintenance, rather than the normal short periods followed by long warm-up breaks.
In this light the work of Jim Phillips was noticed by Northwest Airlines. Certainly they knew that their outside airport personnel were in little danger of freezing to death (because of the proximity of buildings and heated equipment). They did recognize the occurrence of non-life-threatening cold injuries and a great deal of discomfort. Northwest Airlines invited Mr. Phillips to be a speaker at an international conference for Airline Ground Services in Detroit.
The following is a copy of the material included in the participants' manuals. The presentation was very well received; his theme was cold weather productivity, indirect injury, and incidental injury.
Cold Weather Safety and Productivity
Presented by
James G. (JIM) Phillips, Jr.
of JP Associates
INTRODUCTION
Specialists
JP Associates is a company specializing in and dedicated to providing the world's finest cold weather safety training. JPA uses a unique and powerful approach to teach this subject. Through the years, thousands of individuals have been taught these materials. Past clients include many different organizations:
US Forest Service, BLM, FAA, Montana Power, US West Communications, AT&T, all branches of the US Military and dozens of others.The course taught by JP Associates Winter Safety Made Real, is accredited by The National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians and the Montana Emergency Medical Services Bureau.
A COVERT PROBLEM
Millions Exposed
Within the world's work force, many millions of individuals are routinely exposed to winter conditions that range from just cold, to downright bitter cold.The airline and air transport industries are no exception. Many ground services and support personnel work outside year round in all kinds of conditions. The tendency is to think of the cold-related problems for these workers as minor or of little real threat for one or all of three major reasons.
[1] Such personnel are almost always working at an airport facility with shelter, heated buildings and heated vehicles close by. Nobody is likely to freeze to death on the civilian flight line or tarmac.
[2] Everybody gets really cold at one time or another. It's just a fact of life, something we have to just accept. If the cold does not injure an employee enough to send him to the hospital, or to a doctor, or keep him from coming in to work, then it is not really a serious problem. It does not justify many resources being devoted to the problem. It's the, "If it's not broke, don't fix it" syndrome.
[3] After all, it's not really that cold much of the time anyway. Why, most airline operations go on spring, summer and fall. In fact many airports are in relatively mild areas like Atlanta, Dallas, Washington DC, and New York City., Not in places like Anchorage, Minneapolis, and Detroit.
This being the case, cold weather safety, performance, and productivity training is often little more than a collection of "winter wives' tales" passed down through the employer and employee generations. This is also called "education through accidental discovery of best guesses with assimilation of hoped for reality"; or in the vernacular, the "blind leading the blind" where neither wants to go.
The result is a myriad of inbred performance, productivity, and safety defects right out in the open, yet unrecognized for what they really are.
Perhaps the best attitude to have is, "If it's not broke, make it better anyway." If you don't, your competitor will.
SAFETY IN THE COLD
Direct Cold Weather Injuries
Without a doubt, cold and extreme cold conditions can be directly hazardous to personnel working outside. It is easy to recognize the hazards of Frostnip, hypothermia, snow blindness, frost bite, and trench foot. Obviously cold can be a problem.Within industry, the need to prevent job-related cold injuries is obvious for a number of reasons: loss of man hours, need for extra back-up personnel, higher workman's comp insurance rates, greater exposure to major litigation costs from employees and their families, and short and long term disability costs.
One cost easy to overlook that can be the greatest expense of all over the long term is new regulations and laws imposed by unions and government agencies.
In short, preventing cold injuries saves time, money and resources.
Indirect Cold Weather Injuries
Cold weather exposure directly contributes to other types of injuries. However, this group of injuries is not titled "Cold Injuries." For this reason they are not always quickly recognized for what they really are -- Injuries entirely caused by or significantly contributed to by an individuals exposure to winter and cold conditions.Easiest to recognize in this classification are slips and falls on icy surfaces.
More subtle and even more important to recognize are the other Indirect Cold Injuries of this group.
• Loss of footing, stumbles and falls because of numb feet.
• Loss of footing, stumbles and falls with feet cold enough to be in severe pain.
• Severely cold and hurting hands can easily be enough distraction to cause falls, walking into overhangs, stepping off ledges, tripping over objects, falling down stairs, etc.
• An Individual's impaired judgment or desire to rush caused by severely cold and painful hands and or feet. These individuals are known to walk in unsafe areas (a short cut) or hurry across unsafe surfaces to get out of the cold.
• Fingers and hands can be severed or crushed when pain or numbness prevent necessary concentration and normal sensory feedback about hand location. In short, cold workers are more likely to be injured by a "hand trap."
• Individuals shivering uncontrollably in mild to moderate hypothermia are a true hazard; they are as bad as a drunken worker on the job. The shivers of hypothermia greatly impair motor control. The lowering of body core temperature seriously hampers mental reasoning and judgment power. Such workers become an accident looking for a place to happen.
It is vital for safety personnel to recognize the true impact that cold weather has in contributing to, and directly causing, all types of injuries.
Individuals not affected by the cold are much safer in the working environment. One of the easiest ways to judge the affects of cold on individuals is whole body comfort. If an individual feels no chill, pain, shivering, or even a threat from the cold, then he or she is "comfortable." Any level of discomfort is a distraction. The greater the discomfort, the greater the potential for injury at an exponential rate.
In short, preventing indirect cold injuries saves time, money and resources.
Consequential Cold Weather Injuries
There is another type of cold weather safety consideration that affects people other than the worker out in the cold.A skilled worker or professional will lose some of his finely honed edge if he is cold. For all of the reasons previously sighted, an individual's performance will be compromised to some level. This certainly affects the workers safety, however, just as important to realize is the affect it can have on the safety of others.
The airline industries' primary concern is the safety of it's passengers.
Passenger safety is impacted by the aircraft in which they travel.The performance and reliability of any particular craft is ultimately determined in large measure by the people that support, maintain, and watch over and operate it. Cold and hurting people are more likely to rush a job, miss a procedure, skip a precaution, overlook a warning sign or inadvertently damage equipment. Most likely the results will be delays and increased costs, but in the worst case they could be catastrophic.
In short, preventing indirect cold injuries saves time, money, resources, and possibly lives.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Economics
In simplest terms the bottom line is positive ECONOMICS. Positive economics comes from reducing the cost of Direct Cold Weather Injuries, Indirect Cold Weather Injuries, and Consequential Cold Weather Hazards.The reasons are simple:
• Improved employee reliability
• Increased equipment reliability (better maintenance and care)
• Greatly improved employee productivity and performance.
• Lower insurance, legal and incidental expenses
• Less paperwork & support costs
• Fewer forced regulations and related costs
• Better customer and service image
• Happier employees
• Less personnel turnover with their related costs
• Improved competitive edge in the market place and increased market share
THE SOLUTION
A Course of Action
The only viable answer is to build the solution into the individuals. Proper training, equipment, and motivation is the first line of action. It must be backed up with appropriate support and follow through to encourage and lead the individuals into a new work and lifestyle that effectively eliminate the problems.The aim is to empower the individual to be the solution. To EMPOWER is "to enable, endow, commission or give official authority to." It is to make possible a desired solution.
Comfort, reliability and safety are only effective once they are an innate part of an individual's thinking and actions. Ultimately each individual is responsible for his or her own actions.
Winter Safety Made Real accomplishes this task. It is our goal to empower the employees to be more comfortable, reliable, productive, and safer in the cold. Whether it be in the bitter cold of Anchorage, Minneapolis and Detroit, or in the mild cold of Atlanta, Dallas, or Washington DC.
JP Associates and Jim Phillips will be glad to discuss and plan your specific needs for Winter Safety Made Real both in the classroom and in the field.
