Blackline Safety - Experts & Thought Leaders

Blackline Safety Corp., a pioneer in connected safety technology, has released a new whitepaper entitled Navigating Radiation Risks: Key Concepts for Protecting Workers and Responders in an effort to mitigate radiation exposure for fire-hazmat and first responder teams. Designed as a strategic playbook, the whitepaper aims to help teams assess and react to the rising threat of radiation exposure to better protect workers, the public, and the environment. robust emergency protocols “For those on the front line, such as first responders, hazmat teams, and workers in industrial fields like mining and oil and gas, there’s an increased risk of accidental exposure to dangerous levels of radiation,” said Christine Gillies, Chief Product and Marketing Officer at Blackline Safety. Christine Gillies adds, “Quick thinking and robust emergency protocols are essential to ensure worker and community safety. This whitepaper responds to a growing industry need to educate workers on the different types of radiation, early detection strategies, and approaches to address the broad spectrum of radiation risks, faster and smarter.” Key insights from the whitepaper Radiation can be divided into four main categories: alpha, beta, neutrons, and electromagnetic waves (or gamma rays), and identified as non-ionizing or ionizing (nuclear) radiation and particle or waveform. It’s important to understand the differences to best respond to risks. There are two general categories where nuclear radiation can be found: naturally occurring radioactive material (to which they’re exposed simply by breathing the air around us or ingesting food and water) and artificial sources (including medical imaging, such as X-rays and CT scans, nuclear energy and weapons, and dirty bombs), and each has varying effects on the body. Radiation is measured differently in the U.S. than internationally for the three forms of radiation measurement: radioactivity, absorbed dose, and effective dose. The U.S. measures radiation in millirems (mrem) per year, while most other countries measure radiation in millisieverts (mSv) per year. Being familiar with the different measurements enables workers to gauge overall health effects. Gamma radiation cannot be detected through sight or taste. Technology is needed to help determine its presence and develop policies and procedures to deal with how gamma radiation levels are monitored and what steps need to be taken in case of a radiation emergency. There are several types of gamma radiation technologies currently available, each with different uses, advantages, and disadvantages. While the bodies can take in nominal levels of naturally occurring gamma radiation from the surrounding environment, they are not equipped to handle increased exposure levels without incurring severe, life-long damage to their health. For those areas where gamma radiation presents risks, radiation safety plans are critical to ensure the three pillars of radiation protection – time, distance, and shielding. The use of technology plays a key role in worker and community safety, and area monitoring – such as Blackline Safety’s newly-released EXO 8 Gamma, the only direct-to-cloud area monitor capable of detecting up to eight gases and gamma radiation – has been proven effective as one of the first lines of defense.

Blackline Safety Corp., a global pioneer in connected safety technology, has announced the launch of an international safety awards program to recognize individuals and organizations who go above and beyond to keep their employees, communities, and the environment safe. Worker safety "Blackline’s No. 1 priority is ensuring that every worker returns home at the end of the day in the same form they arrived and that communities and the environment are protected from life-threatening situations," said Christine Gillies, Chief Product & Marketing Officer of Blackline Safety, whose suite of safety devices are used by hundreds of fire and hazmat, oil and gas, petrochemical, food production, biotech, transportation, utilities, and water and wastewater organizations across North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. "Our goal is to recognize Blackline technology users who are aligned with our mission and have helped save lives by avoiding serious incidents or causalities in their pursuit of safety," explained Christine Gillies. Blackline Safety Impact Awards The Community Hero Award recognizes an individual or group that has made a profound impact on their community Called the Blackline Safety Impact Awards, the first award was presented to two U.S. utility workers who saved a child’s life. The Blackline Safety Community Hero Award was awarded to Matt Overcasher and Steve Manypenny, field technicians with Columbia Gas of Ohio, at a July 29 ceremony at the utility’s training center in Gahanna, Ohio. The Community Hero Award recognizes an individual or group that has made a profound impact on their community by going above and beyond to help save lives or protect the community from safety incidents. Two-way communication safety device Overcasher and Manypenny were on their way home from work in 2023 summer when they heard frantic screaming from a mother of an 18-month-old struggling to breathe. Using quick thinking, they pulled the emergency SOS latch on their Blackline two-way communication safety device and were able to get medical help dispatched within seconds. Communicating with an agent from Blackline’s 24/7 live Safety Operations Center throughout the incident, the duo was guided on what to do until EMS arrived on-site and revived the unconscious child. $10,000 donation For their heroic efforts, Overcasher and Manypenny each received a prestigious award, which also included a $10,000 donation to Ronald McDonald House of Central Ohio – the winners’ charity of choice. When a child is in the hospital, as the child was in this case following the rescue, the family needs to be close. Open 365 days a year, the Ronald McDonald House helps facilitate family-centered care that fosters health and well-being for the whole family. Incident response While working in the utility industry involves risks workers are fully safety trained to react to incidents Columbia Gas of Ohio is a brand of NiSource Inc., one of the largest fully-regulated utility companies in the U.S., serving approximately 3.5 million natural gas customers and 500,000 electric customers across six states. While working in the utility industry involves risks – from electrocution and falls to chemical exposure, fires, and explosions – workers are fully safety trained to react to incidents. Layers of protection Both award winners say they have experienced emergencies before, but never one quite like this situation that involved a child. Blackline’s award-winning G6 wearable single-gas detector,  G7 personal gas detectors, and G7 EXO area gas monitors are built for extremes and the toughest conditions, with GPS-enabled location tracking providing layers of protection to ensure a critical lifeline during an emergency. Cloud-connected monitoring platform Supported by Blackline Live, the company’s powerful, cloud-connected monitoring and analytics platform, the technology enables organizations to view in real-time all their workers’ locations and gas readings in the field and configure their devices, from any Internet-connected smartphone, tablet, or computer, no matter how remote the location. Blackline Safety Impact Awards will be presented annually in a variety of award categories, including customer, channel partner, and environmental heroes, in addition to community heroes. 

Northern Ireland Water (NI Water) is the sole provider of water and sewage services in Northern Ireland. Almost 1.8 million people across the country count on them to supply 605 million liters of clean water and treat 362 million liters of wastewater daily. Over 1,500 staff—approximately 500 of whom are frontline workers—operate and maintain thousands of assets and supply production, mechanical and electrical services, as well as metering and billing. While NI Water had a variety of portable gas monitors in their fleet to detect the presence of hazardous gases, their existing devices did not supply real-time gas readings, had no connectivity, and had no built-in two-way communication capabilities. As an organization that has always prided itself on being at the forefront of safety and innovation across its extensive operations, NI Water sought out a more progressive—and scalable–solution. Authority Comment "The real-time gas readings enabled by direct-to-cloud data streaming while G7s were in use were a key feature for NI Water. With their earlier solution, NI Water had to wait until their devices were being calibrated to get a data dump. With G7, HSE personnel have an insight into each user’s gas readings, helping them to identify and mitigate gas risks a lot more effectively.”  JJ O’Brien, Director at OBW Technologies. The Solution G7’s reliable cellular connectivity and its indoor location-compatible feature helped circumvent this issue OBW Technologies, the leading national provider of portable and fixed gas detection instruments and solutions in Ireland, participated in a public tender for the procurement of portable gas safety devices for NI Water. OBW recognizes the safety challenges faced daily by workers in the water and wastewater industry and recommended Blackline Safety’s G7c wearable cloud-connected multi-gas monitors with integrated cellular connectivity and location technology, including indoor location compatibility. NI Water also had difficulty maintaining a reliable phone signal across the organization due to work locations around water tanks, reinforced steel, or underground. G7’s reliable cellular connectivity and its indoor location-compatible feature helped circumvent this issue. NI Water purchased over 700 G7c devices. The Results The green connectivity light on G7 let NI Water team members know they were connected to the Blackline Safety network—even deep underground. They could rest assured they could always be found quickly by team members through Blackline Live.