An important measure that homeowners and small business owners can do anytime is to properly label hazardous, emergency and essential items, equipment, supplies and storage areas in the home, office, shop or workplace.
Mike Kasun, president of K-Sun Corporation, notes that portable label printers like K-Sun’s newest LABELShop® BEE3™ make the task easy, and professional labels are more durable and legible than the masking-tape-
“Labeling is absolutely essential for safety applications in larger environments, like laboratories, industrial settings and manufacturing plants,” says Kasun. “But it is also essential for the home and small business enterprise too.”
Kasun says there are several ways to label for safety in the home, including:
*Label a car seat or booster seat with the child’s name, date of birth, parent(s) name(s), emergency contact, doctor(s) name(s), allergies or medical conditions and needs, insurance information, organ donor status, and anything relevant that emergency personnel would need in case of an accident. A current photograph could be attached to the seat as well.
*Label skateboards, bicycles, ATVs, snowmobiles, snowboards, skis and other recreational equipment that children, youth and adults use with a distinctive reminder label, “ALWAYS WEAR HELMET” or “PUT ON SAFETY GEAR.”
*Label telephone receivers and base stations with codes for voice-mail access plus home street address and emergency numbers including the poison control hotline (1-800-222-1222)
*Label fire routes and exits in the home, such as instructions for opening a window or door. Use brightly colored labels for visibility.
*For family members who have disabilities or require supports and services for daily living, label equipment, functional items and work/therapy areas in the home or other environment. This helps to organize necessary supplies and equipment for easy storage and access for the individual, family members, caregivers and support personnel.
*Important information such as health and medical files can be identified with color-coded labels so the files can be immediately accessed and are set off visually from other files in a file cabinet.
*When labeling children’s items, toys, clothing, backpacks, etc. with identification, take care that the label is not easily seen. This is because a predator could read the name from the label and call out to the child by name, appearing to be familiar. Personal items and toys can be color-coded for each child.
*Labeling toy storage areas can help young children learn to put away their toys after playtime, helping to prevent accidents from toys lying around underfoot.
*Label each circuit/fuse on electrical and circuit breaker panels with the appropriate area or appliance it serves, and the master shut-off switch should be labeled in a distinctive color for immediate access. Label other utility valves, such as natural gas, with instructions for shut-off. The Electrical Safety Foundation recommends that every adult in a home, office or shop learn to safely access the panel in order to turn off and restore power in an emergency.
*Water shut-off valves, pool equipment areas and other utility and electronic media centers in the home can be color coded and labeled as needed for operational and safety purposes.
*Label the locked storage area in the home, shop or garage for hazardous materials. Add brightly colored warning labels to the front of containers holding hazardous household or garden chemicals and products.
*Label the date when changing batteries in smoke alarms or filters in the heating or air conditioning system or when servicing fire extinguishers or other appliances.
*Label items when creating a home emergency supply kit so that the shelf life of batteries, canned food or bottled water can be ascertained easily.
*Add reminder labels on light switch plates to turn off lights or on a door to close or lock the door for both energy efficiency and safety.
30 Years of Professional Labeling Solutions
To celebrate its 30th anniversary, K-Sun has created a limited-time ‘FREE BEE’ kit to introduce its portable BEE3™ 3-in-1 label, bar code and heat shrink tube printer nationally. Every FREE BEE kit also includes a free jar of honey from the Wolf Honey Farm located in Baldwin, Wis., and a portion of proceeds are donated to the University of Minnesota Bee Lab to help with research on colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon of unknown cause affecting the world’s honey bee population.
With the purchase of two supply cartridges, a power adapter, and adjustable wrist strap—a kit valued at $98.65—the $75 BEE3™ printer and six AA batteries are included free. BEE3™ users can select from 60 colors and sizes of polyester labeling tapes and five polyolefin heat-shrink tube combinations at a fraction of the cost of major competitive label printer tape prices. The printer is backed with a three-year unconditional warranty.
For industrial and larger applications, K-Sun offers a premium line of LABELShop printers. Its newest MaxiLabel Pro Version 2.0 software, which is WQOL-certified for Windows XP and 200 and Vista, works with the K-Sun LABELShop 2010-PC, 2011XLB-PC, and 2012XLST-PC premium printers. The MaxiLabel Pro software is the only software that has a Homeland Security symbols library; libraries for electrical and laboratory/medical symbols are also available.
For product information, contact Linda Law at K-Sun Corporation, 800.622.6312 ext. 214, visit www.ksun.com or email info@ksun.com.
