Volume XXIII, Issue 3 - April 2026

“Safety  Expert" may be one of the many hats you wear. We can help you meet the challenge.

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“This is beautifully written! Refreshing and perceptive, Barbara”

Lee Casey, Managing Director, CC Hydrosonics

Feature Article

Worker Safety and Environmental Compliance: Changes and Challenges

James Unmack and Barbara Kanegsberg

Navigating safety and environmental regulatory requirements can be overwhelming, especially for manufacturers involved in cleaning and surface prep who must also achieve throughput, minimize rework, and control costs. Understanding safety requires education, experience, and street-smarts. What do you do if you are thrown into the safety arena? Following a safety “check list” is not enough.

Jim Unmack, Certified Industrial Hygienist, is an iconic safety professional. Since the late 1950s, he has witnessed the evolution of safety and environmental standards and practices. Jim retired from the U.S. Air Force. He was with the State of California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA). Jim has advised major aerospace companies on issues of worker safety and compliance. His projects include surface prep and surface finishing. His holistic, common-sense perspective is informed by the diversity of his career.    Jim Unmack and Barb Kanegsberg have been friends and colleagues for at least 40 years. Barb has often picked Jim’s brain for ways to solve thorny production and environmental problems. In this article, Jim and Barb reflect on regulatory changes and give practical ideas to navigate manufacturing and regulatory complexity.

Jim: The Environmental Protection Agency started in 1970; and I started before there was an EPA. The safeguards we need to put in place to protect workers have always been an issue. While there wasn’t much centralized help when I began my career, even before the EPA, we had a pretty good handle on exposure guidelines. Exposure guidelines are related to tolerance levels, to how much exposure there could be before we saw adverse effects. However, exposure guidelines did not have the force of law.

Barb: Those “good old days” weren’t always so good! On perhaps 2 to 3 occasions, a boss tried to force me to use a chemical that studies indicated to be toxic or explosive.  With guidelines that did not have the force of law, I had to stand up for myself. I think employees have to educate themselves about the risks of any chemical or process; and they have to take responsibility for their well-being.

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KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

We’re back!

The groundbreaking, acclaimed “PQCW One Day Hands-on Parts Cleaning Workshop” Is back! We’ll be in Columbus OH on July 7, 2026. Product Quality Cleaning Workshop instructors Darren Williams, Ed Kanegsberg, and Barb Kanegsberg are putting together another practical, enjoyable program. Last year’s participants, including surface finishers, assemblers, managers, analytical chemists, even cleaning agent formulators, told us they had a productive and fun-filled day. Sign up! Space is limited.

Product Quality Cleaning Workshop Preliminary Schedule

8:00 – 8:30 Breakfast, check in

8:30 – Noon, Activities, Demonstrations

    • Become a molecule

    • Make water and oil mix

    • Ultrasonics

    • Rinsing, drying

    • Cleaning equipment

 AM Quiz

12:00 -- 1:15 Lunch, visit tabletops

1:15 – 4:30 PM, Activities, Demonstrations

    • Biological contamination

    • Cleaning, product damage, outgassing

    • Become a polymer

    • Fixture for effective cleaning - ultrasonics

    • How clean is clean enough

      • Compare cleaning, extraction, chromatography

      • Quick in-house testing, monitoring

      • Use outside labs efficiently

      • Meet the standards

    • Achieve the best cleaning process

 PM Quiz

4:30 PM – 5:30 PM reception with exhibitors

Sign up to attend workshop.

But wait, there’s more!

Following the PQCW Hands-on Workshop, the July 8 – 9 Parts Cleaning Conference offers two days of presentations. Combined with the Parts Cleaning Workshop, that makes three days of opportunities to solve your cleaning problems and to make manufacturing facility more productive.

More info here.

BFK Solutions. – independent consultants and practical educators

Our decades of experience help you make productive decisions about your cleaning processes, your manufacturing processes, your business. Contact Ed and Barbara Kanegsberg with concerns about cleaning, surface quality, regulatory issues - we’ll get back to you and discuss your cleaning issue, whether or not we do a project together! Suggest a topic – we may write about it! 

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