Plastic Innovations: safety

Plastic Shield Can Save Children's Lives: Lifesaving School Bus Body Modification Now Available

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Plastic Shield Can Save Children's Lives: Lifesaving School Bus Body Modification Now Available</h1>
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The "danger zone" refers to the area extending 10 feet to the front, rear, and side of the school bus, where children are at most risk of being hit by passing vehicles--or even being run over by their own bus. There have been over 55 tragic child fatalities (not including serious or catastrophic injury) due to the right, rear danger zone over the past 10 years, an area in which the U.S. Department of Transportation notes the highest number of fatalities. Barron was stunned that there had not yet been a resolution.</div>
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"The majority of school buses have a rocker panel sitting approximately 2 feet from the ground, so the S-1 GARD (<a href="http://www.s1gard.com/" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d98c6; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.s1gard.com</a>) used for transit buses would be cost prohibitive due to the heavy mounting brackets...yet the risk of exposure on a school bus is worse because of its height. I was consumed with guilt for not figuring this out earlier," said Barron, inventor of the device. "This is finally a solution where children's lives can be saved at minimal cost."</div>
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The MDZ SHIELD (<a href="http://www.mdzshield.com/" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d98c6; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.mdzshield.com</a>) is an inexpensive, one piece BASF polyurethane guard that acts as a safety shield in front of the dual rear wheels, and is easily and quickly mounted to the side panel of the bus. This lessens both material and labor costs, while making it easily visible for bus operator's inspection.</div>
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Our mission at PTS is to serve as a catalyst for positive safety changes. PTS was founded in 1993 and has been successfully selling the S-1 GARD Dangerzone Deflector, a physical barrier covering the right rear tires, to the mass transit industry. Since mid-2010, PTS and manufacturer Pacific Metal Fab (PMF) have been looking to schedule a meeting with a school bus OEM to make the MDZ SHIELD an industry mandated safety product. PTS and PMF understand that school bus OEMs are not interested in adding cost to new bus orders due to low bid; therefore, we have offered to pay all tooling and hard costs related to the product for the OEM's competitive edge. Since bus builders are able to manufacture the body modification, PTS believes this will be more effective than selling the product traditionally to school districts as an aftermarket part, which in the past has proven too costly due to budget restraints.</div>
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Plastic Shield Can Save Children's Lives: Lifesaving School Bus Body Modification Now Available

Plastic Shield Can Save Children's Lives: Lifesaving School Bus Body Modification Now Available The "danger zone" refer...

Plastic Seat Belts Evolve to Help Save Lives

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Plastic Seat Belts Evolve to Help Save Lives</h1>
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Despite all of the challenges facing the automotive industry today, this is a time of great innovation.</div>
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Electric vehicles are just months away from entering the U.S. market and evolving engine technology is consistently improving fuel efficiency. Auto manufacturers are taking big steps to reduce emissions and hybrid cars are becoming mainstream. While powertrain technology has significantly improved fuel efficiency in recent history, the materials used in production of automobiles are increasingly playing a key role in making vehicles more sustainable. One group of materials, in particular, that is opening new doors to auto design and fuel economy is plastics.</div>
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Plastics are helping to revolutionize the automobile as we know it. “Lightweighting” has become the watchword in the automotive industry as manufacturers strive to increase gas mileage by reducing the weight of vehicles. Innovations in plastics have given auto manufacturers the opportunity to build lighter weight cars without compromising safety. Light and strong reinforced plastic vehicle parts are replacing their traditional metal counterparts. These strong, energy absorbing plastics are being adopted to increase the resilience of passenger cars in a crash, while also reducing the weight of the vehicle to improve fuel efficiency.</div>
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For every 10 percent reduction in weight of the total vehicle, fuel economy improves by 5-7 percent and for every kilogram of vehicle weight reduction, there is a potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 kilograms over the vehicle’s operating life. Plastics are making these weight reductions and emission savings possible. With more than 600 million vehicles on global roads, the saved vehicle CO2 emissions really add up. Through the recent “Cash for Clunkers” program, 997,824 vehicles were traded in for more fuel efficient models in the month of July 2009 alone. You can bet that each of those new replacement vehicles is benefiting from plastics innovations that are helping improve fuel efficiency. As plastics technology advances, manufacturers will be able to make vehicles even lighter, which can be expected to result in even more fuel efficient vehicles.</div>
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Because plastics are lightweight and versatile, they make up approximately 50 percent of the material volume of new cars. This includes safety features like seat belts, air bags and padded dashboards, as well as functional components such as seats, bumpers, electronics and consoles. Many new parts for instance, under the hood casings, knee bolsters, and even some headlamp reflectors have been created from recycled plastics, with the hope that more recycled material will be a part of future cars, closing the loop. Innovations in plastic materials have also enabled vehicle designers to increase the quality, comfort and attractiveness of automobile interiors.</div>
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Plastic materials are used to create countless products we use in our everyday lives, especially within the automotive industry. Whether manufacturers are addressing fuel economy, safety, style or functionality, the common theme is that plastics are helping make all of these efforts possible.</div>
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Plastic Seat Belts Evolve to Help Save Lives

Plastic Seat Belts Evolve to Help Save Lives Despite all of the challenges facing the automotive industry today, this is a time of gr...

Innovations in Plastics Contribute to Safety and Sustainability

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Innovations in Plastics Contribute to Safety and Sustainability</h1>
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The National Safety Council (NSC) encourages Americans each June to participate in National Safety Month, which is devoted to reducing preventable injuries and deaths.</div>
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Beyond the obvious pain and suffering caused by preventable injuries and deaths, many people don’t connect these personal misfortunes with the immense burden on societal, economic and environmental sustainability. In reality, these tragedies have radical effects on all aspects of sustainability.</div>
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For example, the NSC reports that fatal accidents have profound economic implications: an accidental death in a workplace, home or motor vehicle results in millions of dollars in medical expenses, wage and productivity losses, property damage, and other related costs. So we wind up using limited financial resources to compensate for losses rather than investing in productive activities that could promote the long-term sustainability of our society, our economy and our environment.</div>
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So … what does this have to do with plastics? Innovations in plastics play indispensable roles in helping reduce preventable injuries and deaths. Numerous health, medical and safety tools made possible by plastics contribute significantly to our safety, which enables us to be more productive and live longer, healthier, more fulfilling lives. These innovations also contribute to sustainability by reducing the negative impacts of injuries and death on our families, society, the economy and the environment.</div>
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Here are some examples of plastics that contribute to safety—and sustainability:</div>
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<b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Transportation</i></b></div>
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<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Plastics make possible many of the safety features in today’s automobiles that help protect us from injuries and deaths, such as air bags, seatbelts, crumple zones, shatter-resistant windshields, plastic foam structural components, child safety seats and more.</li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">New innovations continue to improve safety. For example, polystyrene plastic foam “soft walls” used on NASCAR racetracks to soften the blow during a crash soon will be helping protect everyday drivers on our nation’s highways. And a new safety device called the MDZ Shield, made with polyurethane plastic, helps prevents our kids from becoming trapped under the rear wheels of school buses.</li>
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<b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Medical</i></b></div>
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<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Plastics make possible many of the life-saving health and medical innovations we rely on today. Two basic advances alone—sterile plastic packaging and disposable medical items—have helped prevent countless infections, one of the world’s leading causes of death.</li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">New bacteria-resistant plastics have enormous potential to improve safety—used as coatings on medical instruments and other hospital surfaces, these plastics can help stem the spread of infection.</li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">High-tech carbon fiber-reinforced plastics have enabled a new generation of extremely strong, lightweight prosthetic limbs to help more and more of us remain mobile, while 3-D printing with plastics now allows prosthetics to be custom fit to a patient’s body.</li>
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<b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Safety in the Home</i></b></div>
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<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Innovations in plastics—smoke detectors, electric outlet covers, stairway gates, shatter resistant cooking and tableware, and more—today help protect us and our little ones in our homes.</li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Modern building products made with plastics help make our homes more fire-resistant. For example, fires often begin on wood decks where we grill and entertain—plastic composite lumber is less flammable and helps prevent the spread of flames.</li>
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<b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Food Safety</i></b></div>
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<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">CDC estimates that each year roughly one in six Americans (48 million people) gets sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die due to foodborne disease. By reducing spoilage and contamination, plastic packaging helps improve food safety—and helps reduce our food waste and its impact on our environment, economy and society.</li>
<li style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Innovations in plastic packaging continue to contribute to food safety. For example, new “active packaging” can prolong the shelf life of food due to a specially developed plastic that slows the growth of bacteria, which helps protect us while also reducing food waste. And researchers are developing a plastic film that changes color when exposed to a chemical released by rotting food—the film can be incorporated into packaging for meat and fish to alert us to safety concerns.</li>
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Many of these innovations have become widely distributed over the years, helping <i style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">billions</i> of people avoid preventable injuries and deaths and lead more productive lives. Continued innovations—such as dissolvable plastic heart stents and plastic body parts made with 3-D printers—can contribute even further to more productive lives and societal, economic and environmental sustainability</div>
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Innovations in Plastics Contribute to Safety and Sustainability

Innovations in Plastics Contribute to Safety and Sustainability The National Safety Council (NSC) encourages Americans each June to p...

Plastic Innovations

Plastic Shield Can Save Children's Lives: Lifesaving School Bus Body Modification Now Available

Plastic Seat Belts Evolve to Help Save Lives

Innovations in Plastics Contribute to Safety and Sustainability

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