“FIBREGLAS RESIN”

The following ts taken from the
St. John Ambulance bulletin and may be
useful tnformatton for anyone who might
plan on ftbreglassing or patching his
boat.

At the Labour-Management Safety Confer-
ence held in Vancouver on Nov. 1 and 2 an
eve specialist described a hazard that
could affect each of vou and your familie-
s. That hazard is the catalvst (or
"hardener" or "accelerator'') that is
added to fibreglas resin before the resin

is applied. The eve specialist told us
_ that a drop of this catalyst in the eye
will progressively destroy the tissue of
the eve and result in blindness. This
will occur even though an attempt is
made to wash the catalyst from the eve.
Furthermore, once the chemical has
- started to destrov the eye, there is no
known way of stopping the destruction or
of repairing the damage.

During his talk the eve specialist
showed a coloured slide of an eye damaged
by this chemical. He showed many other
Slides illustrating eye problems that can
occur if the eyes are not properly
protected. Some of his slides were so
unpleasant to:look at that several people
left the room. However, the slides
certainly illustrated the point that the
eye specialist was trying to make;' name-
ly, WHEN HANDLING CHEMICALS OF ANY KIND
APPROPRIATE EYE PROTECTION MUST ALWAYS BE

. WORN.

The hazard associated with fibreglas
resin was unknown to manv of those who.
attended the conference, although thev
had used fibreglas resin either at home
or at work. The hazard may be unknown to
you also and it‘’mav be unknown to your
wives and children who may also use a
similar kind of resin and catalvst when
Working with fibreplas or with some of
the hobby kits now available. I hope
that you will bring this hazard to the
attention of your wives and children. The
cost of a pair of safetv porgles is a
‘very small price to pay for the protect+
ion of their eyesight - and yours.

- use of a compass studied.

CASSIAR SNOWMOBILE CLUB

KREK KK KK

Winter of '72-'73 got off to a slow
Start as far as the Snowmobile Club was
Concerned, though the lack of snow and mild
weather made everyone else happy. However
our patience won and we now have enough
snow and ideal weather conditions for our
activities.

The club officially resumed meetings
and activities on October 2nd. On November
4th a get-acquainted party was hosted by
George and Jacaue Johnston, First social
of the seastn was held in the Curling Club
On December 9th. A trail ride to Table
Top mountain had been planned for mid-
December but again the weather intervened
and the trip was cancelled.

It was decided at a general meeting of
the club that they should learn a little
more about safety and what to do under
emergency conditions after the unfortunate

, but not fatal mishap of three of the member

-s whe found themselves stranded overnight.
Randy Aubie was approached and he agreed
to organize a short course in Safety and
Rescue. Under the capable hands of Randy
and the assistance of Len Werner, the
course began to take shape., It was decided

‘that it would be a foyr week course and at

the end of it we would go out on a trail
ride, try to 2pply what was learned, and if
further gourses or guidance were required.
or asked’ for, a review would be made at.

that time. To datte two films have been
shown on general @mutdoor survival and the
After the film
Len Werner tried tto explain (pound through
our fat heads) such terms as declanation
and magnetic northh. Although Len proved to
be a very knowledigeable, patient instructor
it was decided tmat actual practice was

the only course of action, as it had been
a long time since any of the members had
applied themselve: to learning anything new
(what's that sayiing about old dogs, new
tricks).

A trial run has been planned where Len
will tell the members where to go and the
blind will endeawor to find the blind via
compass and sometcthing called 30° Declana-
tion.

Bob Sethen wass also called on to point
out a few minor milments that might befall
a snowmobile, andi what to do about them.
For example, if m machine won't start may-