Advocate For Safe Glass

About Advocates For Safe Glass

In the months to come Advocates for Safe Glass will be addressing additional areas of concern with regard to architectural glazing and life safety. As you recall, this issue hit very close to home a few years ago, with the injury of my own son Jarred when he impacted wired glass and was severely injured.

To this day, countless children and young adults are having their lives changed forever as a result of bureaucratic ways and a lack of adequate regulation. We have a responsibility as members of society to step up to the plate for change. I hope that you will join with me, with an open mind and out of a good conscience, for change.

Greg Abel
Chairman and Founder Advocates for Safe Glass

AFSG to Take on Glass Furniture Safety

Greg Abel has been known for his goal of prohibiting the use of wired glass since 2001, when son Jarred was injured in a wired-glass accident and suffered severe nerve and tendon damage in his left arm (CLICK HERE to read related story). Now, however, Abel has a new goal for the nonprofit organization, Advocates for Safe Glass (ASG) of Eugene,Ore., which he founded and chairs: improving the safety of glass used in furniture.

"I had to take a little sabbatical from ASG to regroup—after having put in several years in the battle with wired glass, it just had taken its toll," Abel says. However, in that time he began receiving calls from law firms around the country in regard to a new safety issue: "children being either injured by wired glass or young people actually dying as a result of impacting glass in furniture."

Advocates For Safe Glass

ADVOCATES FOR SAFE GLASS, INC. ("AFSG") is a no-profit organization founded by parents of children severly injured by wired glass products used in buildings. Wired glass is a fire protection glazing material used in doors and other human impact areas where children and young adults accidentally impacted the wired glass and have suffered severe and life-threatening injuriesresultin in amputations, paralysis and impaired mobility due to permanent nerve damage.

Letter: Philip L. Graitcer, D.M.D., M.P.H. to Greg Abel

Dear Mr. Abel:
In reference to my report to you dated December 5, 2002, there are two further points I would like
to make:

Number of Wired Glass Injuries
Because the CPSC surveillance data were not specifically coded for wired glass injuries, it was not possible to state how many of the 2,554 glass door injuries in schools were caused by wired glass as opposed to other glass types such as annealed (plate), tempered, or laminated glass.

The Code Corner: How can you change a building code?

I'm sure that most of you who work frequently with one or more of locally adopted codes have come accrss arequirement that seems to make no sense, or has been rendered obsolete by new methods or materials. What some of you may not know is that ANYBODY can submit a proposal for a code change.