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Dangerous stuff you do at work

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As a summer job my brother and I used to make industrial paint remover. We'd wear respirators with a set of heavy rubber gloves. Being stupid male teens we used to dip our hands in the vat and see how long it would take for the chemicals to burn through three layers of latex gloves... :S
 
Originally posted by: ironwing
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?
Click to expand...

A co-worker of mine told me that when he was doing visual inspections a few years ago, the lens cap on his binoculars fell off into the cavity, and he watched with horror as it slooowly floated all the way down to the bottom of the reactor. Ops wasn't too worried since it would disintegrate pretty quickly. 600 deg F, 2250 PSI, 300,000 gal/min flow tends to make quick work of anything non-metallic 🙂

To answer your question though, the surface of the water is room temperature and I bet an M&M would float so probably not 😛
 
I work with anhydrous HF, neat trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), and other kind of dangerous chemicals in the lab I work in (peptide synthesis).

Also got to use the synchrotron in the APS (advanced photon source) at Argonne National Lab a few times.
 
100% Isopropyl and Ethyl Alcohol.
I had the fun job of pouring 5 gal drums into smaller containers for use in a machine shop. You never want to get a full nose of either one, burns like hell.
My dad works with cryogenic (liquid) gasses doing leak tests on vacuum chambers. Usually Nitrogen and Helium. He let me play with some Liquid Nitrogen once, nifty stuff.

The other would be handling money. You never realize exactly how dirty those bills in your pocket are until your fingertips are gray from handling them all day.
 
I used to work for a pharma company.
HF, cynaide and dibal...
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...butylaluminium_hydride
Check out the dangers on it...
We had about 10 tablespoons get leftover in a convoluted hose. When it had water put in it the reaction started. I was in a trailer about 250 yards away, it blew a bunch of the windows out and moved the building. We had a tank of about 5000 gals of the stuff
 
Originally posted by: Kaervak
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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Haldol is good stuff. :thumbsup:
 
I worked as a retail pharmacy tech a bunch of years back, pretty safe job, but we did sometimes get the occasional loose screws. Also, there were a number of drugs that would have been unsafe for females who may possibly become pregnant or be pregnant to count .... But I'm male, so I had no issues handling them.
 
my monitor probably has possible carcinogens in it

if somehow my desk were to collapse and pin me that would pretty much suck

dr pepper, by making me fat, could increase my risk of cancer
 
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...

Cool picture. When I was much younger, I had the opportunity to run the polar gantry crane inside the containment building at Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility...a breeder reactor.

Of course, this was during construction of the site, so it wasn't operational...but cool none-the-less. (and a similar view, without the water and rods)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi.../6/60/FFTF_Hanford.jpg
(the large round dome building)

Many of us wore t-shirts that said:

I work at Hanford.
In case of a black-out, stand close to me.
I glow in the dark.

😀
 
Lots of times worked around dangerous electronics. 3 phase power at 1200 amps is the kind of stuff where you don't get a chance to get your methods down right. If you ever get comfortable working around it you shouldn't be doing it.

 
Sulfuric acid. Hydrochloric acid. Caustic soda. High concentration hydrogen peroxide (20%). Lead-based solders. Various other chemicals related to manufacturing electronics and printed circuit boards. My dad's company back when I was a kid.

Chemicals used in photo labs, none terribly dangerous though. Commodity prints at a drug store.

Since then... um... nothing.
 
Light machine guns, rifles, pistols, shotguns, grenades, rocket launchers (m72), and grenade launchers (m203).
 
Originally posted by: DLeRium
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 😛
Click to expand...
1.21 gigawatts of electrical power . it was attached to a flux capacitor

warning: NEVER work w/live power w/o the proper safety gear!
 
Originally posted by: BoomerD
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...

Cool picture. When I was much younger, I had the opportunity to run the polar gantry crane inside the containment building at Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility...a breeder reactor.

Of course, this was during construction of the site, so it wasn't operational...but cool none-the-less. (and a similar view, without the water and rods)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi.../6/60/FFTF_Hanford.jpg
(the large round dome building)

Many of us wore t-shirts that said:

I work at Hanford.
In case of black-out, stand close.
I glow in the dark.

😀
Click to expand...

Fixed your Haiku. 🙂
 
Electricity... heavy construction equipment... ladders (I have had some shitty ladders before) ... chemicals... asbestos (not really that bad, but Contractors board sure makes you think so)

 
AIG Financial Products division - one man can enter into a bad contract that can bring down the entire global economy.
 
The most dangerous thing I work with is myself... I hope those users get down on their knees every night and thank God that I can't send a sucker punch through TCP/IP 😉
 
I worked for my dad as a carpenter for a few years. Here's what happened:

- I was hit in the chest with a small splinter of wood from a table saw. Even though I was standing about 6-7 yards behind the saw, and wearing a sweatshirt, the splinter hit my chest hard enough to open up a deep cut just above my nipple. It felt like a bag of cement had hit me. Trip to the ER and 12 stiches.

- My dad cut his finger with the radial arm saw. Luckily the saw was just spinning down after being turned off, so he didn't lose the finger, but he did require surgery

- My uncle shaved the part of his hand below his pinky with a power jointer. I don't know how many stiches but he was out of work for a couple of months.

- My dad's friend nailed his foot to the roof of a house with a nail gun (3 nails), used his hammer to pry the nails from the roof and his foot, and drove himself to the hospital.

I also did some under-the-table asbestos abatement with them wearing just dust masks and gloves.
 
It's not the volatile mercury-organics, radionuclides, exposure to radar, heavy mobile machinery, infectious substances, drowning in frigid water, etc, that concern me. It's the self-centered attitude of lazy people and the management mantra of "hurry hurry hurry" that concern me.
 
These ceiling tiles which disintegrated from water leakage and I had to sweep and vacuum up are most likely asbestos. Also slabs of fiberglas insulation on top of said tiles aren't the most healthy to handle unprotected.
 
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