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Dangerous stuff you do at work

S

Suspicious-Teach8788

Lifer
Me? Nothing much. I handle some chemicals from time to time. Nothing crazy like HF or anything but just sulfuric and sodium hydroxide. Maybe some flammable stuff. I also work with some processes that deal with heavy metals like cadmium. I suppose it's all fine if you take precautions, but none of it is that threatening to me.

One of the processes I manage was under a safety violation the other day for possible generation of some H2S, so I'm supposedly under some fire and I have to revise my documentation to clearly spell out what you can do and what you can't do. Some tech apparently decided it was a good idea to clean the tool with some acid.

Then yesterday my coworkers and I were talking about all the safety violations we probably have at work but no one really cares about it and that it was unfortunate they busted my process technician only because the safety guys happened to be watching.

Anyway, someone brought up wet chemistry (which is what I work with), and that inevitably brought up wafer etching and stuff, and we started talking about how much balls it takes for technicians to crawl under wet etch tools when there's things like leaks and crap and plumbing issues. Almost everyone said that they would never ever crawl under an etch tool under any circumstance. Yeah I don't think I'd like to be under gallons and gallons of HF either 😛



 
CNC Steel tube bending machine. Wasn't super dangerous or anything, but you can quickly lose fingers if you aren't paying attention.

EDIT: Maybe you meant chemicals? Then trichlorethylene (sp?). Not bad stuff, but not really good for you either. Especially when the containment cooler fails and it floods the factory with vapor. It's all good though, I guess you can work through it as long as you take a break every 20 minutes... or so we were told.
 
Well, at previous times, I have worked with horses and chainsaws -- try logging with a horse and it's hard to say which is more dangerous. Currently, household cleansers is about as risky as it gets for me, unless you count driving in NC.
 
480v power in old, dusty cabinets. some chemicals, nothing really cool tho. unvented vaults filled with toxic waste water fumes.
 
Pissed off rednecks, aggressive/stupid/drunk drivers, formaldehyde, rads, more hazwastes than you can shake a stick at. Never dealt directly with HF but had lots of it on one site. Had ClF3 on the same site but I never had the slightest interest in getting near it.
 
Currently, it's not slipping on the puddle that forms at the back stairs of my office building when it rains.

In the past, I worked construction as an Electrician's Apprentice at an oil refinery in Corpus Christi, TX. Pretty much take your pick of dangers. Heights, electricity, heat, sulphuric acid, fellow employees....
 
40Kv in the Radar and Ionizing and Non-Ionizing Radiation emitted from it, and PCB laden oil in the Transformers, oh and I guess there is asbestos in the walls, but that is minor, lol.
 
I worked construction for over 30 years. Much of it was in maritime construction, building bridges, sewer outfalls and the like, so there's always the possibility of a quick and painful injury or death...spent an accumulated couple of years in oil refineries working on shut-downs, and those are never totally safe or healthy environments, but overall, not a whole lot worse than any other construction site, IF you pay attention to what you're doing and follow the safety rules.

In my 30+ years, I had one crane collapse on top of the crane I was running, which put me in the hospital for a while...dumped one crane when I broke it.😱 have had a few minor injuries, a couple of "disabling" injuries, and one that ended up being career ending.

Working on the water offered the most challenges. When the weather gets bad, the water gets rough, and sometimes, getting to/from the barge is difficult, and once in a while, getting on/off the barge becomes impossible until the weather calms down and the seas lay down. (10-15' swells make it a challenge to get on/off a boat) 😀


(this does not take into account my 4 years in the USMC with nearly 2 of those years in combat in Vietnam...that's different than a "job," it's an adventure) 😀
 
Industrial Pool sealant. Well I think that is what it was, all I know is that it was two chemicals that had to be mixed and then we had to wear masks while pouring in ultra fine grain sand and coat the entire wave pool with it. And that when spilled on someone it literally felt like your skin was on fire even through your clothes, that was a fun day.
 
Network/PC users.

In 2001, I happened to be working at a research facility in Maryland. I was in IT so I had access to pretty much all parts of the institute. In one lab, they happened to be sequencing Anthrax. Anyone that entered the lab had to have full protective gear on so that was a little sketchy.

After Sept 11, the FBI came and seized everything related to the Anthrax project. That was freaky, too.

 
Originally posted by: TwiceOver
CNC Steel tube bending machine. Wasn't super dangerous or anything, but you can quickly lose fingers if you aren't paying attention.

EDIT: Maybe you meant chemicals? Then trichlorethylene (sp?). Not bad stuff, but not really good for you either. Especially when the containment cooler fails and it floods the factory with vapor. It's all good though, I guess you can work through it as long as you take a break every 20 minutes... or so we were told.
Click to expand...

i worked with a similar drycleaning chemical called perchlorethylene

nasty stuff. we ditched it ad my dads place in favor of a much milder solvent.

i dont do anything remotely dangerous now. the worst i probably did was as a field tech. my company had me and 2 other guys haul gear about 20feet up a ricket-ass old aluminum ladder to crawl onto a building roof covered in about 3" of ice.

that day sucked ass, getting off the roof and onto the ladder was god damn creepy.
 
Leaning over the reactor cavity doing visual inspections. There is no railing because a bridge crane traverses over the edge, and you have to wear double-booties over your shoes so its clumsy. Not really that dangerous because even if I fell in, it's only a couple feet down to the surface of the water. But the view was pretty cool 🙂
 
Originally posted by: QuantumPion
Leaning over the reactor cavity doing visual inspections. There is no railing because a bridge crane traverses over the edge, and you have to wear double-booties over your shoes so its clumsy. Not really that dangerous because even if I fell in, it's only a couple feet down to the surface of the water. But the view was pretty cool 🙂
Click to expand...

If you drop an M&M in there, will it melt?
 
I've had a couple patients with HIV, some with Hep C, MRSA, C. diff & one with bacterial meningitis. I've had a couple patients that needed to be sedated with Haldol which is an antipsychotic. They were fun.
 
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