NFPA diamond

The NFPA created a diamond or a kind of code in order to protect the industries from fire; also it is used to communicate the type and the risk of every material that the companies use.

The diamond has four divisions and each division have a color; every single color has a meaning. When a chemical product represents a risk in the containers we can find the different colors that alerts and informs  that it represents some risk. Color blue refers to health risks, color red refers to inflammability, color yellow means reactivity and color white means especial risks. Each color has some different numbers and each number means the risk level. Below I want to show you how it works:

Color blue means health:

0.    No health risk.

1.    Materials that causes skin irritation.

2.    Substance can cause a minus damage.

3.    Substance causes permanent damage.

4.    Substance causes the dead.

Color red means inflammability:

0.    Material does not burn.

1.    Materials need a temperature of 200°F to burn.

2.    Materials need a temperature of 100°F to burn.

3.    Liquids and solids need a temperature of 83°F to burn.

4.    Materials burn quickly, the necessary temperature is 73°F.


Color yellow means reactivity:

0.    Material is stable, do not react with anything.

1.    Material is stable but it cans react with different temperatures or pressure.

2.    Material presents chemical changes.

3.    It cans explode with different temperatures.

4.    It can explode with normal temperatures.

Color white means special situations:

W: the element reacts with water.

OX: the element is an oxidant element.

COR: the element is corrosive.

BIO: the element has biological risk.

CRYO: the element causes cancer.

We must bear in mind that all chemical compounds are different,  it means that all substances have different risks, some substance can have white, blue and red color, another substance can have just white and red, the colors in the diamond depends of each special substance.

We like workers and health professionals to look in every container and take precautions as possible as they can to avoid lethal accidents.

We must be aware of prevention policies to avoid accidents and occupational diseases that can be caused for an exposure to some different substances.

 Here is the NFPA diamond:

Written by: Paulina Guillén Vargas.

Sources consulted: Soto, R. (12 de November de 2011). NFPA standard. San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica.

Crime and violence in Costa Rica: Law Enforcement

Crime is a fact that affects Costa Rican and foreign visitors. The previous video shows how crime and violence are very harmful problems because they only bring negative effects to the community.

 In the past, crime was only a word in Costa Rica, but nowadays, it is totally different, crime is very common. Peace and tranquility that identified Costa Rica, as peaceful country, now seems to be a dream. Crime, assaults and robberies at homes are really common in most Costa Ricans` lives.  People are afraid of going out because cities are very dangerous.

In most newspapers, magazines and TV news it is very common to watch information about crimes and assaults that occur in our country. In many cases, crime and violence are related to drug traffic, which is another problem that is affecting Costa Rica.

In fact, crime is increasingly becoming a very concerning problem. Costa Rica has to change this situation now because violence affecting the tranquility and development of our country.

 However, another real fact that we should not hide is the one we listen in the radio everyday, they say that   the government is not congruent and strong enough on the application of laws or penalties against criminals. It is common to hear that criminals can rob or even kill a person and the police just arrest them for few hours and next day criminals are back in the streets. Analyzing these conditions we can see how the law application is not congruent with the reality Costa Ricans are facing.

In these circumstances, in the last decades penalties have been hardened, it is important to mention the most relevant  changes first the maximum prison sentence  was raising from 25 years to 50 years and the maximum sentence for teenagers was also increasing. These penalties are some of the highest around the world, nevertheless, it is evident how   they are not enough to fight against crime and violence.

Finally, it is obvious that this country needs an urgent and effective reform in different areas, especially in the social field; had to hand with the juridical and political polices which need a quick restructuring.

 “We have the right to live in peace! 

Stop crime and violence!”

Written by Adriana Valverde.

Sources consulted:

Asamblea Legislativa. (1970). Código Penal. San José, Costa Rica.

Scott Oliver. (n.d.). Crimen En San José Costa Rica - Ofensores Reincidentes son un gran problema. Retrieved November 12, 2011, from http://www.casadelujo.com/public/827.cfm

Immigration in Costa Rica: Pross and Cons

Immigration is the act of coming into a country of which one is not a native for permanent residence. It is made for many reasons including economic, family, or political situations.

Immigration is one of the most controversial topics in our country and people have divided opinion on this subject. Many people feel that society benefits from immigrants as they take up jobs and contribute to the government through taxes. There are many people however, who feel that immigrants encroach on their lives and the attention of social services

The high concentration of immigrants workers in the agricultural industry keep food prices relatively low. These are some of the benefits of immigration. Immigrants are a source of low cost labor, but these cost reductions are also eventually passed on to the consumer, so host country citizens benefit from this as well.

Immigration also increases cultural diversity and increase the quality of life  of immigrants. For me it is the most important benefit or advantage that immigration provides, it brings immigrants better opportunities to go on and build their dreams and goals. I think that everyone deserves a chance at a better life.

However, immigration has resulted in many problems all around the world. For example, different types of diseases, increase in crime, racial discrimination, greater educational costs, greater poverty, and others can result.

I think this topic is very important because immigrants are usually the people that spend hard hours in the agricultural and construction industries and they make a country unique and diverse. Without them, half of the accomplishments and successes of some countries would not happen. I think that it is vital to the development of countries. In conclusion, the presence of the immigrant population is something that we should embrace as citizens.

Everyone has the right to have a better life!

Written by Adriana Valverde.

Sources consulted:

Dickerson Marla and Kimitch Rebecca. (2006, March 23). Costa Rica Seeks to Shut Its Doors to Illegal Migrants From Nicaragua. Retrieved November 30, 2011, from http://articles.latimes.com/2006/mar/23/world/fg-costa23

Bobei. (2011, September 6).  Benefits of Immigration. Retrieved November 30, 2011, from http://benefitof.net/benefits-of-immigration/

Donald J. Boudreaux. ( 1997, December). The Benefits of Immigration. Retrieved November 30, 2011, from http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/the-benefits-of-immigration/

Professional Ethics

As the video shows professional ethics may be defined as the science that deals with the rights, duties, and  values pertaining to each profession. It is closely related to the social responsibility, and its main objective is to make every conscious about their responsibility they have in each occupation.

It is relevant for every future lawyer to take ethics as way of life. It depends on us the orientation we give to our profession. Nobody may doubt of our ethics if we are creative, responsible, kind, intelligent, fair, and honest.

The ultimate goal of professional ethics is that each professional, no matter her or his occupation, doctors, engineers, lawyers, or teachers perform their duties the best they can, with no harm for others and with  no intention to get benefit for themselves.

As mentioned before, each of the professions has its own ethic code, and as a consequence it is mandatory to follow it. When a professional breaks such code her or his clients or superiors may punish her or him.


In summary, I can conclude that this topic is very relevant  because professional ethics is really importante to achieve success and be known as outstanding representatives in our field.

Written by Adriana Valverde

Sources consulted:

Definición.de. (2008). Definicion de Etica Profesional. Retrieved November 12, 2011, from http://definicion.de/etica-profesional/.

Lackout and tag-out

This article is of huge importance it talks about the importance of protecting workers from accidents caused by a bad control of hazard energy. It is important to note who are potentially exposed are the people that maintain the machineries and work with them. The accidents result from a bad management of hazards energy, they are very painful and frequent, so it is extremely necessary to have a program to control the hazards energy. The program must be efficient and easy to understand, at the beginning the program must be in steps, first the health professional must write all the steps in a paper, second recognize all hazards energy in the work place, third they search the way to control that energy, fourth teach the employees how to tag-out and lockout that energy, and last but not least the primary cable must be in the land ground. This article talks about different themes, first it mentions the OSHA 1910.147 which is a rule that talks about the service and maintenance of the machines and different equipment that can start in an unexpected moment and it can represent a damage to workers, this rule sets the minimum requirements for the control of energy. Second, the article talks about the ten most common problems with tag-out and lockout namely:

•           Lack of procedures.
•           Training all employees.
•           Wrong use of tags.
•           Wrong use of locks.
•           Working under someone else´s lock.
•           Not identifying all energy sources.
•           Annual audit of procedures and review of findings.
•           Maintenance vs. Minor routine tool changes.
•           Oversight
•           Duplicate keys.

For me this article is relevant for all employees and employers because the objective of health professional is taking care of them, in other words it is necessary take prevention policies to make a secure work place. I agree with this article because in some work places we don´t take under consideration all what must be done. The ten most common problems that this article is mentioning are important but I think that most of the times the employers and work conditions make a hazard work that  it represents a huge problem for workers. Something that this article don´t mention is that equipment must be clear and understanding for example the tag-out must be red and it must have a clear letter that includes the name of worker, the date, and the start time and end time of work, another important thing is that the lock and tag must be the same color preferably red because this color is striking and it means prevention.

Here is the instrument to logout and lack-out:

I wanted to talk about this information because I like it, also it is a topic that few professionals’ health talks and practice about it. When I found the information I have found very interesting and I have decide to put in the blog because it allows both inform and take prevention polices in order to avoid accidents caused by hazards energy in the workplace.

Written by: Paulina Guillén Vargas
Sources consulted: Roger Soto, 2011, candeado y eteiquetado.

Hearing loss for occupational exposure.

The hearing loss refers to the incapacity of people to listen or listen less. When I found the video and watched it I really laughed because it is funny but it is also real, in this video we see to Betty Boop angry about the construction noise and at that moment I had imagined if Betty was angry for that, I could not imagine the workers of construction.

When we are exposed to noise we feel stress, angry, and we cannot communicate with other.

Noise exposure is determined by different facts like:

•           Noise intensity.
•           Noise frequency.
•           Exposure time
•           Individual susceptibility
•           Age
•           Gender

The acoustic traumatism is a professional disease that affects individuals who work in an environment that the exposure is more than 80 decibels. A lot of hearing loss happens when some activities generate high row and sounds.

Our ear is a very important part of our body because our ear is in charge of our body balance and it is an important sense. Our ear is very complex and the way that it hears is incredible. Here is an example of how the ear listens:

This is the reason why we must take care of our ear and we should control prevention procedures, when in our job place we are exposed to noise; we need to take under consideration prevention policies like:

·         Make measurements.

·         Medical examinations

·         Reduce the noise

·         Search the noise source

·         Bring or use the personal protective equipment.

·         Noise maps.

·         Noise control

·         New technology

All people are exposing to noise because it is present all around in cars, trains, traffic, restaurants, bars, airplanes, industrial process and ventilation, also we find noise at home, high schools, colleges, parties, work places. The people that are vulnerable to suffering some disease caused by noise are:

·         Childs

·         Elder people

·         Sick people

·         Babies.

·         Pregnant women

In conclusion the noise cause serious effects in the health and the efficient prevention must be a combination between Ministerio de Salud, employers, employees and engineering process.

Sources Consulted: OMS, http://www.euro.who.int/Noise

                                   INSHT, NTP 270 and NTP 503

Work Ergonomy

    The work ergonomy is very important in the workplaces; the people must choose the best options of postures to work.  The employers must give to employees a comfortable place to work and to be able to develop the work in a correct way.

     Much of the time the workers represent the most important part in an organization or company this is why we need to take care of their health, and the good ergonomic facts can help us to choose the better conditions to work.

Some tips for a good ergonomic in the work are:

All the things and working tools must be close you, this means that if you need the phone or paper you can get it without any uncomfortable actions.

·         The screen of the computer must be in front you.

·         The light in the working place must be the correct one, try to use natural light.

·         The keyboard must be in front of you where your hands can use it in a comfortable way.

·         If you write with the left hand the mouse must be in the left side of your desk, but if you write with the right hand the mouse must be in the right side of your desk.

·         The chair must be adapted to desk in order to obtain a good combination and you can support your arms in a good way.

·         If you are a short person you must search things that when you use them they support your feet.

·         Your arms and your laps must be form an angle of 90°.

·         Awkward Postures in the office work.

Here an example of good practices:

In the workplace we take some bad postures for example:

·         Lack of Back support

·         Lack of support at elbow and wrist.

·         Not enough light in the office.

·         Not enough space.

·         The things that you need are far away from you.

Our reality:

Written by: Paulina Guillén Vargas.

Sorces consulted:

University of Jaen. (s.f.). UJAEN. Recovered  October 28,  2011, of UJAEN: http://www.ujaen.es/serv/serobras/SPRL/ERGONOMIA/ERGONOMIA/ergonomia%20de%20la%20oficina.pdf

Ionizing Radiation

Radiation is the energy spread; the ionizing radiations are particles flow. Also the radiation is composed of electromagnetic waves; it forms from the presence of magnetic and electrical camp. We can find two types of radiation: natural radiation that comes from sun or nature resources and another kind of radiation is the artificial radiation this is the radiation created by humans.

The ionizing radiation is dangerous because it has enough energy to break up an atom, it also forms ions. Some examples of ionizing radiation are the gamma, X rays and alpha, beta particles.

The ionizing radiation represents a risk for human biology for example:

·         They can interact with the human cells.

·         The effects do not present immediately they present months later.

·         It damages cells.

·         It causes the death cells.

·         It causes extern irritation.

·         It causes contamination.

·         It produces problems in workers blood.

·         It causes problems in digestive system, in the skin, in the penis and testicles of men, in the ovary, in the eyes, heart health, bones, and lungs

To sum up we need to know that there are different kind of exposition to ionizing radiation for example we can be exposed at job, in the hospital, at home.

 In medicine we are exposed when: we apply different treatments like radiology or radiotherapy, in the industry employees are exposed when in the work places are producing energy. Some places of works like hospitals that bring medical treatments for cancer, different types of work where the temperatures are high,  a lot of jobs are where the workers need to manipulate radioactive materials, mines industries can be exposed to ionizing radiation that it is a lot of energy that are emitted from the soil or building materials as a result a lot of dangerous in the work place for example it can produce mutations, and alterations in DNA, also can damage some tissues and singles organs, in addition it can produce cancer.

I considered  that video  important because a lot of workers are exposed to ionizing radiation, most of all, I think that this video give us a lot of important information about how this kind of radiation is produce, it is interesting to listen and watch the video and know how  ionizing radiation is produced. The ionizing radiation can be in the sun, in factories that produces high temperatures, the hospitals when the doctor apply radiology, in addition some common ionizing radiation are: alpha, beta and gamma.

To conclude I think that this video is very important because workers are not the only ones exposed, we are exposed too in the houses, college, in another places so for that we need be careful with ionizing radiation and take simple preventions like:

·         No exposed a lot to the sun.

·         Take prevention in my work place and avoid ionizing radiation

·         Surveillance

·         Use individual protective equipment.

·         Good solid waste management.