14 DAY TRIAL // Many are utterly clueless about it, but as it turns out, it is not easy being a steelworker. Apart from the fact that there's always a risk that somebody will be injured, some of the people working in this industry don't yet have proper equipment.
On the contrary, Swedish steelworker Cathrin Persson, who has been working in this industry since 1998, claims that she and her colleagues have serious trouble finding underwear designed to protect them from exposure to fire and intense heat.
The steelworker explains that, first off, heat- and fire-resistant underwear options are few and far between. What's more, the people who make and market such garments appear to be utterly oblivious to the fact that women too can work in the steel industry.
Thus, Cathrin Persson claims that companies are yet to get their act together and start making underwear especially designed to keep female steelworkers safe while on the job. No need to get into what this says about the world we live in.
“When you’re welding, there are sparks flying. They fall down on you like rain. They make holes in your gear, and eventually, they get on your skin, where they don’t stop until they run into something. This is usually the bra, for females,” she said in a statement.
The European Space Agency to the rescue
The good news is that, thanks to scientists working with the European Space Agency, Cathrin Persson and other female steel industry employees, together with their male colleagues, will soon have an easier time making it through the workday.
Thus, it was earlier this year that Swedish underwear company Björn Borg introduced the world to a new line of garments made from Nomex, a highly resistant fabric that usually serves to make spacesuits. This innovative line is dubbed Thunderwear.
The material is flame-resistant, meaning that it cannot catch fire. What's more, it does not retain any heat, which makes it perfect to protect the bodies of those working with steel heated to temperatures of over 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit).
“They held it over an open flame, and it didn’t leave any mark,” Cathrin Persson detailed a Thunderwear demonstration that she attended. “I touched the fabric immediately afterward, and it was lukewarm,” she went on to explain.
It is understood that, now that Björn Borg has successfully created heat- and fire-resistant underwear using the high-tech material commonly employed to make spacesuits for astronauts, it is only a matter of time until Swedish steelworkers adds Thunderwear to their work outfit.