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Tina Thompson of MUG Solutions received the Stevie for Best Canadian Entrepreneur, and her Coquitlam, British Columbia-based company was named Best New Company of the Year, in the 2008 Stevie Awards for Women in Business.
 The Idea
The idea that would change Tina Thompson’s life began to take form in 2006, just after she had given birth to her second child. Tina had been working in the fast-paced IT industry and was looking for a less frantic career—ideally one where she could work from home.
Around the same time there was lively debate in Vancouver about the Needle Exchange Program for drug users, which had been established there in 1989. Had it been a success or a failure? Curiosity led Tina to research this program, only to discover that the use of the word “exchange” was misleading. Fresh needles were simply distributed to drug users to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. So the question was: Where were all the old needles going?
A large number of them, it appeared, were disappearing down manholes. Again, “disappearing” is a misnomer. The needles might have been out of sight of pedestrians on the street, but they were rapidly becoming a health hazard for the utility workers who had to go down these manholes into dark, confined—and now hazardous—workspaces.
Whenever these workers were jabbed by a needle, they immediately had to start a severe medical regimen that lasted for six months and involved a program that frequently left them either ill or in discomfort. Thompson was already aware of this as her husband had had first-hand experience.
“It was at least 15 years ago and down a manhole that he got a needle stuck in his steel-toed boot, so fortunately no entry into his boot or skin,” explained Thompson. “It gave us a scare. When the big discussions were going on about the success/failure of the exchange programs, I asked my husband if the problem of needles in manholes had been alleviated by the exchange. When he told me how bad it now was down there, that's when I started to do my research.”
Things had become so bad, in fact, that employees of the utility companies were refusing to enter manholes because of the bio-hazard of discarded needles and syringes, and this in turn was having an economic impact not just on the utilities using these subterranean work areas, but also on their customers.
This news topic so transfixed Tina that it gave her an idea that led to the formation of MUG Solutions and the development of a torsion spring unit that could be affixed permanently to the underside of the manhole lid.
While air sampling and manhole lid removal would remain virtually unchanged, the installation of Thompson’s unit would mean that workers would no longer have to remove needles from their workspaces.
The Test
By early 2007 Thompson had filed patent applications for a prototype. The product was designed to be easy to use. It didn’t change the look or function of the lid for the public, and yet it would alleviate the worldwide problem of hazardous contaminants— needles, debris, hydrocarbons, and other refuse—from entering the work area hidden below the lid.
Development of the unit was accelerated when one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, TELUS, expressed interest in a field trial. By mid-2007, results of this field trial clearly demonstrated the efficacy of Thompson’s product. In fact, at the end of the trial, there were no needles in any of the five manholes where the product had been installed, while 519 needles and 8 crack pipes were found in the 5 unprotected comparison manholes.
The Final Product
Since then the MUG Solutions torsion spring unit, the MUG Flap™, has been attached to a number of manhole lids in the back alleys of downtown Vancouver. At every manhole where it is being used no more needles have been found.
The MUG Flap™ was developed at the US engineering firm of Product Creation Studios in Seattle, Washington. Product Creation Studios tooled up the MUG Flap™ for manufacturing, and arranged for fatigue testing by an internationally recognized testing organization.
The MUG Flap™ was brought to market in the fall of 2007. It had taken just one year for Canadian entrepreneur Tina Thompson’s career to go under the manhole cover!
About Tina Thompson:
Tina Thompson began MUG Solutions in 2006 based on an idea that she developed and patented for a device to protect manhole covers. Prior to 2006, Thompson worked in the fast-paced IT industry. She has found the move from the IT industry into the predominantly male industries of steel-product development and manufacturing both challenging and rewarding. She has taken her idea through its entire development process and was recognized in 2008 by The Canadian Society of Safety Engineers (BC/Yukon Region) with an award for Outstanding Achievement by a Safety Professional.
Tina Thompson lives with her family near Vancouver, Canada.
About MUG Solutions:
MUG Solutions of Coquitlam, British Columbia, is a company that has developed and patented products for manhole safety. The company recently received an award for Outstanding Achievement by a Safety Professional from the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering. MUG Solutions’ Torsion Spring product, the MUG Flap™, has been identified as a standard for all manholes by TELUS Communications. For more information go to www.mugsolutions.com. |
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