Case study: CA Hull

I’m Dylan Clinton, I’m a welder.

My name is Jeff Cejmer.

From CA Hull, out in Walled Lake, Michigan. We do bridge work all around the state. And day to day, we basically just fabricate everything we need for the field. Sometimes we get sent off for steel repairs, and miscellaneous other projects. Just happy to be here.

My name is Michael Dietrick. Been here 7 years. Blasting. Everyday is a blast day, pretty much.

Coming to work, we have our safety meetings, we stretch as a team, and then we come back in here and we get back to what we were doing. Whether it’s welding, carpentry work, mechanic work, anything that needs to be done around here, we do it.

A lot of grinding, a lot of dust. A lot of welding fumes, and this thing comes in pretty handy over here.

I love it, it’s a lot better than an average welding helmet. Because the fumes will just seep up into your hood, and you’re smelling it all day, and you get a soot cough that eventually gets worse and worse. I developed it, and now, with this, it’s actually helping with it, and actually reducing the fumes. So it’s working a lot better than a regular hood.

I like the helmet. It’s really comfortable throughout the day, and it’s nice in the summer time because it keeps you pretty cool.

During winter, keep it on hot. When you start getting hot, start sweating, turn it to cold.

I like not having to wear anything attached to my face. You’re kind of in your own little bubble, you know. The grinding dust and everything, it doesn’t even get all over you. It keeps everything away, it’s great.

Nova 3, it’s comfortable. Shields are great. I love the tear-aways. That’s the only ones I use. That way I don’t have to shut off during production time.

I had a regular fixed shade lens. I’ve been using that for 3 years, and I moved up to an auto-darkening lens, but it’s the same thing, because I’m still getting the fumes of everything I’m welding. Whether it’s galvanized, lead, it’s getting into my body and staying there, so. It’s not what will kill you right now, it’s what will kill you 50 years down the line when you’re trying to play with your grandkids. So, you’ve got to take every measure you can now to ensure your safety in the future.

You know, I see a lot of people with respiratory problems in their mid-50’s and whatnot, and they didn’t necessarily have all the stuff like this back then, so I’m curious to see what this really does for us. I really take it pretty seriously, that’s why I like this.

Every time I go home, I just feel 100% better because I know that I don’t have fumes in my body.

Clean air is the best air. Especially when you’re inside there, it’s dusty. If you can’t smell it, you’ve just got good air in there, it’s great.

What are your life’s best moments?

I like to work on my car a lot.

Going hunting. Working on the truck. I’m working, grinding, working with grease all day, and I need protection there too, so I bring what I get from here home, and protect myself there too.

I like to do a lot of hunting and fishing. I like to go dirt bike riding, and play ice hockey, and stuff like that.

Being outside. Even though I work outside all day, I’m still outside when I get home. So that don’t bother me.

Some of those things, you kind of have to be in a little bit of shape for, so it’s nice having lungs to do it.