Spray Foam Mafia: Toolbox Talks on Safety

Podcast #4 Chemical Safety Part 1: Mastering Chemical Handling-Essential Tips for Foam Product Integrity and Safety with Aaron Carden from Energy Fox Solutions

September 10, 2024 Jeremiah Schoneberg and Dan Benedict

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Ever wondered how proper chemical handling can revolutionize your business operations and safety measures? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Aaron Carden, Chief Operating Officer of Energy Fox Solutions, as he shares his transformative journey from managing auto parts locations to steering the spray foam industry towards excellence. Aaron's insights paint a vivid picture of the evolution of Energy Fox Solutions and their unwavering commitment to maintaining optimal storage conditions for spray foam chemicals.

Discover the intricacies of the foam products' journey from the manufacturing facility to the end user, as we spotlight the pivotal role distributors play in ensuring product integrity. Listen to real-world challenges, like malfunctioning refrigeration and improper handling, and learn how manufacturers, distributors, and contractors can collectively adhere to best practices. By controlling variables and mitigating risks, we aim to protect both the product's integrity and the safety of those handling it.

We also delve into best practices for transporting heavy materials, such as 500-pound drums, emphasizing safety and efficiency. Unlock practical tips on using the right tools, like barrel dollies and pipe wrenches, to minimize physical strain and injury risks. Learn the importance of updated Safety Data Sheets (SDS) and informing customers about reentry times and potential odors. This episode is packed with essential insights to help you maintain a safe and efficient work environment while ensuring the quality and performance of spray foam products. Don't miss these crucial safety measures and tips!

For comments, suggestions, safety shares and questions email us at sprayfoammafia@gmail.com
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Dan:

Okay, welcome back to Toolbox Talks on Safety. I'm Dan Benedict, spray Foam Arizona. I'm Jeremiah Schoenberg technician from UPC. Today we have a special guest, Aaron Cardin I don't know what's your title here Energy Fox Solutions. Chief Operating Officer. Special Assistant to Tiffany. I pay the bills you pay the bills.

Aaron:

They tell me what I need to do next?

Dan:

I'm glad you're good at taking direction. Aaron, give us a rundown. Who are you? What do you do? The whole works.

Aaron:

What's your background? I own Energy Fox Solutions. We're a distribution company. We sell foam, everything else that goes along with making sure that you guys can do your job properly Accessories, parts, equipment. We've got good tech support and we have great partners and I've been open for over two years now, been in the industry for almost 10.

Dan:

Give us your background in the industry a little bit. Start, heck, you can go beyond that Like here. I was just a poor farm kid in the backwoods, definitely wasn't a poor farm kid.

Aaron:

Actually, my background came from auto parts. I had eight advanced auto parts locations that I ran the commercial sales for needed a change and stepped into spray foam and I still can't get it off my shoes, same, same.

Dan:

Same. Well, except not commercial auto parts, not on your shoes. But if I do need an alternator for an 84 chevy, I know who to call. Now. You probably remember the part number, I don't I don't.

Aaron:

I try to uh to get that out of my brain so I can pack it with as much spray foam knowledge as possible. All right, but no, I've been um doing this for almost 10 years. It was quite eye-opening. Uh, the first seven I was with a another supplier and, uh, not exactly friendly towards others in the industry. Everybody was competition, everybody was out to get you. So when we started Energy Fox Solutions, I wanted to take advantage of the partnerships and helping people grow together. So that's why we're here.

Dan:

Topic of the day. Here we're talking about chemical handling storage. Maybe get into some SDSs a little bit here. Why do we need it? What are we here to make sure people are covering their butts about?

Aaron:

Several reasons. You guys put in a ton of money to make sure that your rigs work properly. The manufacturers put in a ton into R&D and making sure that when you get the chemical, that it performs optimally. A lot of the pitfalls that we see on our end is things just not being stored properly, not being taken care of the way that it has been or it should be. Rather, every manufacturer has a similar guideline as how this product should be stored. We work very hard to make sure that we're meeting those conditions.

Aaron:

At the previous shop that we had and Dan, you've been there before and Jeremiah, I think when we first met we were at the other location and it was a constant battle for us. Trying to keep a shop with swamp coolers at below 80 degrees was a challenge every day. We invested a ton of money into making cold rooms to make sure the closed cells stayed where it needed to be. We put air conditioning in to make sure we did all that just to move about a year later into the new location to where it's not so much of a battle. Our facility keeps foam where it should be. We're under 80 degrees even in the 120 degree Arizona heat. We know that when the product leaves here, that it's where it should be, and I think part of what we're going to talk about today is what happens after that and how to keep your material where it needs to be, to where it functions the way that you guys expect, and you know any other questions that you have that can help the people that are actually listening to this today.

Dan:

Yeah, Jeremiah. Why do we need to talk about this today?

Jeremiah:

A lot of the talks we have when we're training and doing demos is preconditioning of your materials right? So if the distributor takes care of the material the way we specify, it, gets on the rig the way we want it, then he's done his job. And then it comes, you know, comes to the contractor. At that point you know we set standards for a reason.

Jeremiah:

It's like you wouldn't set milk out on the counter for a week and be like, oh, it's still good, same, same concept here, guys like there's parameters the product can be stored in, and that's what we ask everyone to do and, like I said once, the distributor does that and he kind of hands off the baton to the contractor. Then it's the contractor to take care of the material, to make sure they're preconditioning and processing it right, because if you precondition the product right, there's a lot less concern down the line. If you try and you know, come at it a different direction or you have the barrel too hot or too cold when you get the job. So we all know how it's, how it affects your day when it comes to labor and time Right.

Aaron:

So that's you know. It's a double edged sword, so to speak, and it's all the way down the line. It starts with the manufacturing facility, whether it be in Arlington or Indiana or Pennsylvania, where it is. When you're in that perfect lab environment and the temperature set exactly right, it goes on to a refrigerated truck to where it gets to us as distributors or you as the customer, at the exact temperature that it's supposed to be at. You can't stop the train at that point and expect everything to work properly. You know the manufacturer can do their job, we can store it properly, you can make sure that it gets to you guys, but there is responsibility from the contractor to make sure that those parameters are met. After that, once it's out of our hands, there's not much we can do other than take the phone calls when it isn't done the correct way.

Dan:

Yeah, yeah, you go on some people that have rigs that are not equipped for like this heat out here and you look at those football shaped drums. You know, and you know, like the poor guy that throws a bone wrench on there to open that up.

Dan:

It's about to have a terrible day to go sideways and you know you just hope they don't get a face full of. You know frothing over closed cell. You don't have that pressure the. You know the rig that you can see the b-side just got that fountain of crap up the wall. Yep, you know, on the lights in the ceiling where you know somebody all over the floor step, yeah, um, on there and you just sit there looking like god I hope that guy didn't eat a big face full of that stuff. And even down to the, you know you open the barrels and they just start hissing on you and there's somebody sitting there with their face over the top of that open that bung, it's hissing. They don't have any respiratory protection on, no ventilation through that area. They're're in. You know they're just choking on that stuff. And I think that's something for everybody, from the ownership all the way down to the helpers, to be cognizant of, those kind of things.

Aaron:

Well, and then on, on our end it's. We've had situations to where a truck's come and the say the driver of the semi doesn't realize that his air conditioning went out on that 800 mile trip from dallas, which is where our foam comes out of. We can't accept that product. We're not only putting ourselves at risk for liability but we're putting you guys at risk of taking an inferior product. There have been situations where we've had to call the manufacturer, say, hey look, this is coming right back to you guys and we don't. We can't take that risk of you guys putting that on there. Like I said, from the manufacturer to us, to you. All of those steps have to be in place to make sure that everyone's protected and you're sparing good foam. And I'm sure at some point in this conversation we're going to get to the whys, and I know Jeremiah's got a lot of experience as to what happens when you don't properly store.

Jeremiah:

Yeah, Well, yeah, like you're saying, you know, especially with closed cells, the blowing agents and things like that can be affected by, you know, temperatures outside the storage parameters and that's the big thing. You know, we all know the blowing agents are a very important part and if you lose blowing agent, you're losing some performance right, so that's why I feel yeah, yeah.

Jeremiah:

That's why it's important to do those things and store it how you, how you should and within the parameters, and take care of it because, like I said, you're gonna lose money and we're all spending a lot of money on r&d, on transport, on logistics, on rigs, on people to know waste money at this point or lose a yield, like you said and to skip steps on it, you're not doing yourself any favors.

Aaron:

You know we all have a responsibility, not just to our companies but to the industry, to do things the right way. But you have the responsibility to your company, to the people that get on your rig and are expecting to go to work. Now do problems happen? And things that are unforeseen happen, of course, yeah, every day. The main part about what we're talking about today is mitigating that risk and taking some of those factors out of the way. You're still going to have situations to where you know this didn't get done, that didn't get done or this breaks or that breaks. Those are out of your control, but it's controlling the controllables which is what helps any business be successful.

Jeremiah:

Another variable you can subtract is a good one. Exactly.

Dan:

How do we do this? How's our best practices? What do you want to see when we pull up with a trailer, whether it be one of the rigs ready to go or just something we're going to transport back to our job site or to our shop? What do you like to see? What makes you feel comfortable when your guys are helping load, handling these drums and stuff that are 500 pounds a piece? What do you like to see? What do you two have?

Aaron:

a plan Right. So when, when you or any other customer comes up, we see the inside of your rig, um, we know we can look and kind of see what the challenges you, you, you have, um, just like Jeremiah does if he's going to hop, come on site with you and he opens back your rig rig, he sees what he can see just from the back end of that trailer or that box truck, what he might be stepping in that day. It's the same thing for for the contractor. Have a plan. So when we get here, you know your product's coming out at a temperature that's going to be optimal and it's going on to the rig. Well, what's the plan from? From there? You know, do you have a two and a half hour drive to your job site? Do you have a 15 minute job to your job site? Are we putting this directly onto the rig that's been either stored in air conditioning or stored in the heat, depending on? You know what time of year or part of the country that you're in and then you know as far as handling the material being safe, you know, not cutting corners, we see some crazy, crazy stuff, um, things that that I would never in a million years do, uh, but I obviously don't have the lower back strength of a lot of the guys that come in here and just start whipping these drums around like they like cans of Coke. Um, but, like I said, having a plan, knowing that, once that, that drum or those drums rather get on your rig, what's the what's the plan? Ok, we're going directly to the job site. We're going to start spraying immediately.

Aaron:

Great, you know, when you pick up from your distributor or you get your delivery, what have you? What are you doing with that material? At that point, dan, I know that, on on that, you're at your shop. You have warehouse space that you're keeping your materials where they need to be until you get to them. Right, well, not everybody has that luxury, which is why you have, you know, guys that spray a ton of foam but they pick up ones and twosies. We would rather see that than you come and pick up six sets of foam that you're not going to spray for the entire week.

Aaron:

Right, we've been on job sites or delivery sites where I make your blood boil. You've got your, your product, your moneymaker, right, that's, that's, that's your inventory. And it's sitting out in direct sunlight or it's in a shed that's hotter than the attic that you're getting ready to go up and spray it. Um, so what do you, as a contractor, do at that point? You know, we've all been in situations where, okay, the AC went out on my rig and you're ice packing. Everything Right, not the best of plans, but at least you know what to do in. That situation happens. But I think that having proper, or rather proper, climate control in your rig is essential, and it goes back to not cutting corners and keeping things in line.

Dan:

Manufacturer, distributor, customer jeremiah tools guys, what do you see that works for shuffling these barrels around? I mean, not all of us have the right forklift with the right clamp, the right you know stuff to do it. We're having to roll them around yeah, I mean aaron's right.

Jeremiah:

You know I I came in rolling the barrels around like a Coke can, like I had to have the right weight balance to get them on the rigs and things like that. But you know the barrel dollies, the forklift attachments, if you're lucky enough to have a forklift and pick the barrels, don't be rolling the barrels on the forks. And you know, like, have the right tool for the job that you can have. You know, depending on your location, where that you can have. You know, depending on your location, where your shop is at. And once again, you know, don't sit there and try and manhandle. You know the drums every day.

Aaron:

The pipe wrench trickles, save your back, save your neck and everything. And it's just as simple as keeping a pipe wrench on your rig, not just for smacking machine when it's acting up.

Dan:

You don't hit your palm right on the head with those things.

Aaron:

You can clamp that down on the on the lip of your barrel and just use leverage and move it into place. You know, I came from a distributor in Florida where there's sand everywhere and if you open a rig on a lot of our smart contractors there was sand all over the floor and it's because once you get that drum up there, they're just pushing it into place. Nobody's taking a risk of dropping something on your feet. And I don't know if there's any visuals that go with this podcast, but I'll send you guys over some pictures of a customer I had that had a full drum of ISO drop on their foot and it is a nasty, gnarly injury. So, but again, you pay your, your helpers, your sprayers, and you want them to be there. Um, for them to be there, they've got to take the precautions to keep themselves safe. Right, you can't be on every rig that you have um every day at all times. So you're putting a lot of faith in these guys to do things the right way. Well, if we give them the tools to do things the right way and show them the benefit, there's a you move a lot of that risk away. But again, you can't. Not everybody is going to see things this way and they want to get it done as quick as possible.

Aaron:

I've been on a job site before and a customer had run back to the shop to pick up some material and the oh my goodness Tailgate the lift gate, stopped working on their box truck. So they kicked off a master pack of R38 and just push the drum off off the back of it onto it. Nice, it works, but it's not something I would. I would recommend no, not at all, but you know it. It gets cold in Northern Arizona, it gets cold here. As much as we talk about protecting this product from heat, you have to protect it from cold as well. So what's the plan there? Do you have plate heaters? Do you have drum barrel warmers? Do you have blankets and things like that? Again, it's just making sure that you guys have the right tools to do it. Once that part's done, we can talk about it, we can recommend it, but we can't be on every rig, just like you can't be on every one of your rigs hoping that it gets done correctly.

Dan:

Yeah, and, like you said, the days of you know dropping and tipping those things up. I've got a 140 pound 16 year old that can dang near, tip those and roll them one handed Right, but every time he does it I'm like no dude, stop.

Aaron:

Yeah, like you're scaring the crap out of me here, like when you're 35, you're going to be living here, right?

Dan:

Exactly, there's a proper way, there's a better way, and even you know Piranha makes their tool. That's got the jaw that you just put right on there and spin those and make sure you got a foot behind you when you go to wrench on one of those, Because when they slip, so do you? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And you know I've flown five feet back in my trailer before just dragging one around. One of those little deals doesn't bite quite like you want.

Aaron:

Well, and you guys have come up with best practices. All contractors know what works for them, what doesn't work for them. Um, we just want to see you be safe. We, we don't want, um, to lose a customer ever, but we don't want to lose one because they can't work, because they hurt themselves by doing something that was very avoidable, by taking some simple steps to make sure that they're taking care of it properly With us. You know we have two different drum grabbers, based to where, if a customer has trailer A, this one works better. If a customer has trailer B or box truck B, we can do that. But again, it all goes back to what happens when it leaves the shop. Right, and we want to make sure that you guys are safe as possible out there. Ask questions when you have them, when you're dealing with your livelihood and your safety. I really don't think there are any dumb questions. I mean, the simplest misstep can really cause a problem for any company, especially when you're dealing with a product that can crush you.

Dan:

Yeah, that's pretty fair. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And back to the old pipe wrench trick. Every once in a while you're going to bite a little hard and you're going to poke a hole in a barrel. You're going to tear that seam. I've seen it happen. Um, make sure you have spill protection ready to go. If you do that, make sure you have a way to secure that. Make sure every way to pump that thing down so you know when you're driving down the road it's not just shaking its way out and making a big mess everywhere.

Jeremiah:

Yeah, don't don't go to get the uh, you know the cheap straps from Home Depot, rated for 25 pounds. Guys, like you know as a tech, you get on those rigs and you see those straps and you know, you know what a rated strap looks like. You know the right strap to buy. Then, once again, the money you spend on getting that product, the money you spend on labor, it's worth spending a little bit more for a strap and taking that extra five minutes to secure your load the proper way, cause you don't want that stuff shifting Of course, making a mess in your rig and, worst case scenario, tipping over and spilling on the road, and then you have a whole nother set of problems Like so once again.

Aaron:

So, once again, right to you're not working until the state clears you no, so your business is shut down because of an unsecured drum. But the other part, you know you're protecting your investment, right? We we hear it a lot from our customers Is this pricing, pricing, pricing? And we want to help out. We want to do as much as we can, but at the same time you have to protect that investment. And it goes like we were just saying um, stay away from the 25 straps, man.

Aaron:

Um, if, if, even if you have a drum that comes loose and it doesn't spill, how much damage is it going to do to your ph2 or your e30? You know a piece of equipment that you just spent fifty thousand dollars on that's supposed to be your money maker and you the equivalent of leaving it alone in the back with the bowling ball just just bouncing around. Yeah and uh, you know that's repair time, that's warranty time, that's all time that you're just, you're down by. Not, like you said, spend a little, a little bit of money. Spend the money to get a drum dolly. Um, a couple hundred bucks saves your guys backs and it moves a lot quicker. Um, but at the very least, just making sure you're making good decisions on the back of the rig.

Aaron:

Empower your guys to ask you questions. You know that, unfortunately, the industry that we're in, especially during the summer, we're all hotheads because your body temperature and your brain is only just too hot for this, which makes people irritable, which makes it harder to communicate. But empower your guys to call you out on it. Hey, we don't have the pipe wrench on the back here. Hey, we don't have the drum dolly. And by listening to them, you know, hey, they're trying to keep themselves safe. That's keeping me safe, that's helping me stay in business. Take a deep breath and come back.

Aaron:

But you know, we see it a lot. You see it on site all the time, jeremy, and the time Jeremy and Dan, you as on the contractor side, you see it out there. You know you're hot, you're sweaty, you're frustrated. It's easy to snap, it's easy to say something that you probably wouldn't have said had you been cooled down with a lemonade or a cold beer. But again, empower your guys to ask those questions and ask you for the safety equipment that you need.

Aaron:

I mean, you know you, you wouldn't ask. You wouldn't lash out at somebody that's asking you for fresh air. You wouldn't ask. You wouldn't lash out at somebody that's asking you for fresh air. You wouldn't lash out for somebody that's asking you for gloves or for a suit. Kind of the same deal on protecting your product again, because that, at the end of the day, that's your inventory Right and puncture drum yeah, it makes a mess. But you're also watching every dollar you just spent on that product yeah, leaking out onto your floor, and you know there's proper disposal ways when that happens. But the main thing is make sure you got a spill kit on every single one of your rigs. I believe that's mandatory as it is.

Jeremiah:

Yeah Well, and like I've told guys before, you know anything, any spill above five gallons is an EPA spill. So if anyone notices or or you're in the location that's very open to observation, you know, and you have a spill and five gallons you know EPA is, can come in and help you clean up and regulate how you do it. So, once again, if you don't have that spill kit and you have something happen, you have no way to stop it or prevent that kind of spill from happening. And it's not. Once again, it's an investment and, yes, spill kits are kind of spendy sometimes depending on what you're buying, but once again it's an ounce of preventative maintenance is going to save you down the road.

Aaron:

If you puncture your, your resin side and you have uncured ISO on your floor, or you vice versa, you're creating a massive mess Again. You're causing yourself more time, more energy and potentially getting yourself in some trouble too. We'll just cut out the dead end.

Dan:

Hit the clicker real quick for us. So we know. Okay, sorry, you brought the book over here.

Aaron:

No, I'm just waiting for the wrap-up. You guys have the book.

Dan:

Oh, okay, all right, sounds good. Okay, all right, all right.

Aaron:

Sounds good, okay, all right.

Dan:

Okay, so earlier felt like I was back in school again. The teacher was over here passing handouts around. Aaron handed out some MSDS sheets here Again, these are available everywhere. There's manufacturers, websites, there's apps. There's ask your distributor If you show up and be like, hey, this is a new product that we have not sprayed before or heck, it's an old product. We spray every day, but we haven't seen a TDS MSDS on it in months, they'll print you one and hand it to you. So once you get that in your hands, aaron, what are we looking for? What are we doing for the guy in the rig that's about to take this stuff and spray it or something? What is he going to read on here for his own safety and the safety of everybody around?

Aaron:

Sure, it's a cheat sheet, right? So the manufacturers put this out on all products. It's not just spray foam. You have an SDS for your TSL, you have an SDS for motor oil.

Dan:

The caulking that you keep in the rig. There's a TDS on that.

Aaron:

The main thing that I would recommend is one always have an SDS on your rig, just in case you know. Osha can pull up on a job site, unannounced State can pull up on a job site. Unannounced state can pull up on a job site unannounced. And if you don't know the product that you're spraying, you're creating a problem for yourself. As far as the TDS, there's a lot of useful information on there. It's got your processing parameters, it's got you know your air perms, it's got your R value just the basic stuff. That's on the TDS, which is what we've got here, but it's also got you know good information. As far as for the contractor, the main thing that I handed these out for is because we are talking about storage and safety and material handling. It has a black and white directly right here for you the shelf life and your storage. Make sure your product stored between 50 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit I'm saying Fahrenheit because we do have Canadian customers that are going to listen to this as well but use it as your cheat sheet. The parameters as far as for processing the material are on there and that's a good starting point Because if you're in the field and you call somebody like Jeremiah, they're going to ask where you started.

Aaron:

Well, he's going to have that DDS. So you guys are starting on the same page of the book. It has your troubleshooting stuff. That's on there. So a lot of the times that we get, we get calls um, whether it be for an equipment malfunction, um, or it'd be for foam that's not reacting properly or it's not performing the way that it could. This saves a lot of time because if you as a contractor can pull open your TDS book or your SDS book, go down to where okay, so it's, I've got weird, weird cell structure or I'm getting voids behind the phone, that's going to save you 10, 15, 20 minutes of a call with with Jeremiah or tech from whatever your your phone manufacturer is, to where you could have got that problem solved two to three minutes. Oh, I skipped this step or I didn't, didn't have this turned on. Again, it's about productivity and that 15 or 20 minutes Well, in the grand scheme of a day it doesn't sound like a lot, but when you're on a job site it's one hundred and fifteen outside in Arizona, 140 in the attics. 15 to 20 minutes is a long damn time, yeah, To have to wait to get your question answered. So use it as a cheat sheet.

Aaron:

But the reason, like I said, said that I passed these out like the, the teacher's assistant was because it has it on here. Right, you're, you have to store the stuff correctly. You can't have it in direct sunlight. But the other part of of the tds is it doesn't just give you the, the, what it gives you the, why, well outside of the, the, storing it at the proper temperature ranges, you shorten the, the light that you can have that foam, but it also that direct sunlight or that heat messes with the chemistry and I think that that gets lost a lot from on the contractor side is, you know, you see it as A and B, A and B, a and B, a and B. What you're not seeing is all of the chemistry that's in that resin side.

Aaron:

The guys like Jeremiah and the other manufacturers have spent a lot of time developing and it has to be correct. Right, we know the chemical composition of our water, but these guys know the chemical composition of that material and how it performs at this temperature, this temperature and this temperature. And there's, in going back to that, there's a reason that there's summer blends on open cell close. So there's a reason that there's winter blends, there's a reason that they're regular blends because those are going to perform different, temperature wise, altitude wise. Um, so having this on your rig or, you know, having your guys that at least have the general knowledge of what's on here, saves you a lot of time, saves a lot of headache and make sure that you are processing the material properly, right?

Dan:

Right, and you know one of the other good things about this. Back on to you know the primary purpose of what we're talking about here. There is health and safety information, there is cautions and recommendations, there's handling, there's job site warnings all published right here. Even it goes back to a breakdown of what type of pp you should have for it. Yeah, of course. Um, you know, proper. Yeah, yeah, respiration right. Yeah, respiratory protection everything is all sitting right here on there well then you're you're.

Aaron:

If you talk about material handling, you know you have what's the what's. The end result is the tip of that gun, right. So these chemicals never touch, they never mix until that very last second right. Once that happens, we all know what spray foam looks like, what it smells like, but your customers don't. And are you setting them up properly to know when they can reenter their home? When can they reoccupy? All that's going to be on the TDS as well. So it's not just the material storage and handling, or what's the R value or what's the air perms or what's the density, it's keeping your end customers safe.

Aaron:

I like to say that we all have a responsibility to this industry to do things the right way. Well, part of that is making sure that your customers are safe on the end and they in turn become a steward for you, whether it be Spray Foam Arizona or company XYZ. You want them to have a good experience with you because you did it right. Not getting calls back because, hey, I got a funny smell, right. All that can be linked back to well, was it stored properly? Did we lose surfactant? Is the catalyst messed up? Again, was this all handled properly from the very beginning, right?

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