A Year of Disasters – What Comes Next?

2017 has been a very tough year for the United States with weather-related damage and natural disasters impacting practically the entire nation. Flooding, hurricanes, fire, and tornadoes have impacted more than half the people in the US and its territories. Disasters like these inevitably lead to property damage and even worse–human and animal health problems such as “mold cold,” infections, antibiotic-resistant injuries, meningitis, Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) and even PTSD.

Moody’s Analytics estimates that hurricanes Harvey and Irma alone may cost the US economy $150-200 billion in damage and lost productivity, not to mention health-related costs.

Remediation (abatement) and restoration companies are responding to these disasters. They are setting up temporary locations and fortifying existing locations in the areas impacted by the disasters. Response has been tremendous.

Cleaning up and providing adequate safety measures are essential to the response. Items such as polysheeting and tapes are used to help provide safe conditions and limit exposure by helping to contain the harmful toxins such as mold, asbestos (exposed in old building materials that have been damaged) and fungi. Versatile tapes such as duct tape, polyethylene (PE) tape and masking tapes are essential in hanging barriers, sealing containment areas and tying up bags filled with old building material and waste.

To learn more about the appropriate tape solutions to use in disaster clean-up, see IPG’s Remediation & Restoration page.

Jeff Coats

Director - Market Development
Intertape Polymer Group

The Challenges of Appliance Installation

Have you ever purchased a microwave from a major home improvement store, got really excited to bring it home, and opened the box and to see what types of tapes were used to package it???  Well, I do and this happened to me a few weeks ago when I decided to get rid of the 20 plus year old microwave in my kitchen.  

When I got the microwave home and started to inspect the packaging, the outside of the box was sealed with a clear carton sealing tape.  After I opened the box, I saw that a clean-removal MOPP tape was used on the outside and inside of the microwave to secure the door and parts during production and shipment.  I was not surprised to see either of these tapes being used by this particular manufacturer.  

I decided to install the microwave myself and unfortunately for me, I always seem to run into some type of “challenge” when I take on a home improvement project.  The “challenge” that I ran into on this project was a large hole in the wall behind my existing microwave.  My guess is that the previous homeowner tried to vent the microwave through the wall and abandoned that idea and decided to vent it through the top of the kitchen cabinet.  What the previous homeowner didn’t do was cover up the hole that was left in the wall.  So what did I do?  I decided to use a few strips of IPG^® Duct Tape to cover this hole and the problem was solved in a matter of minutes.  Every household needs a roll of IPG^® Duct Tape.  In fact, maybe our sales force should add duct tape to their product line when they call on an Appliance Manufacturer.  A roll of duct tape could be packaged with the microwave, dishwasher, etc. in case the homeowner runs into the same “challenge” that I ran into.  

So to all you Appliance Manufacturers out there, call your IPG Sales Representative today and order some IPG^® Duct Tape!

Written by IPG Corporate Account Manager