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Dangerous stuff you do at work

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I'm a grad student in synthetic organic chem....I think our inventory is something over 2000 chemicals, many of which are nasty. HF, sulfuric acid, any number of organotin compounds, LAH, DIBAL, BuLi, all sorts of fun stuff. Oh yeah, I'm the still master, so I have to add chunks of sodium metal to liters of inflammable solvents....always fun.
 
Originally posted by: DesiPower
handle wife (when working form home)
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Ah hell. You win.

Dealing with wifes can be hazardous, not only to your health, but to your mental health and to your sex life...
 
Originally posted by: hanoverphist
480v power in old, dusty cabinets. some chemicals, nothing really cool tho. unvented vaults filled with toxic waste water fumes.
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I would say the same for me. 277V (one leg of the 480V to ground) will really knock the shit out of you, especially if it goes from one arm, through your chest, and out the other arm (from experience)! :Q
 
Originally posted by: Engineer
Originally posted by: hanoverphist
480v power in old, dusty cabinets. some chemicals, nothing really cool tho. unvented vaults filled with toxic waste water fumes.
Click to expand...

I would say the same for me. 277V (one leg of the 480V to ground) will really knock the shit out of you, especially if it goes from one arm, through your chest, and out the other arm (from experience)! :Q
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I managed to rip a 480v line off the wall with a forklift once. Not my best moment.
 
Originally posted by: BoomerD
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) 😀
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I'm pretty sure you're USMC time counts 😉

For me, 8 months in Afghanistan, 14 in Iraq...
 
Nothing really dangerous. Just sawzalls, skills saws, shitty ladders, and a lot of sheet metal that can cut your hands like a mofo.
 
Originally posted by: BoomerD
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) 😀
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badass.
 
I haven't done anything extremely dangerous at work. Mostly just climbing up shaky ladders onto crumbling, damaged buildings. The boss does all the extreme stuff though, such as crawling through spider infested vents.

I think the most dangerous stuff I've done was probably in high school chemistry...

My project dealt with high molarity sulfuric acid, and I remember that I didn't wear gloves all year because the chem lab was out. So here I was, pouring sulfuric acid into a beaker with my bare hands..

I remember a drop spilled once and I went to wipe it up with a paper towel. It totally ate through that. It also burned through some socks later.
 
Originally posted by: JLee
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:
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Couldn't agree more. It's one hell of a useful drug, unfortunately IV administration is no longer allowed so instead of a two minute reaction time, it's 20 minutes. Just have to put up with the crazy a bit longer.
 
Cars. Cars going by me at 70 MPH with just a cone separating us. Oh, and the axe murderer.
 
I'm a CAD department supervisor so most days I'm a desk jockey. However it's for a utility and when there's storm mode, it's all hands on deck. I'll be out in the field chasing down line faults whether it's just a popped cutout or a delta phased 13.8 kv line lying on the ground hot. Also get into the substations every now and then where you've got some real high voltages. The highest transmission voltage we've got is 345kv but I've only been to a couple 115kv substations. Those transformers really get humming on the hot days though.
We also run natural gas pipelines with around 700 psi on the highest pressure ones. Fortunately I haven't had to go near any of that stuff. My group just does the mapping and documenting of the facilities.
 
Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Cars. Cars going by me at 70 MPH with just a cone separating us. Oh, and the axe murderer.
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Unfortunate situation that axe murderer, but your post gave me a good chuckle. 😀
 
sulfuric acid saturated with dichromate
dimethyl sulfate, hydrazine, piperidine
Hydrochloric acid, potassium and sodium hydroxide
a few radioactive things, but fairly wimpy stuff in small amounts
 
Originally posted by: Engineer
Originally posted by: hanoverphist
480v power in old, dusty cabinets. some chemicals, nothing really cool tho. unvented vaults filled with toxic waste water fumes.
Click to expand...

I would say the same for me. 277V (one leg of the 480V to ground) will really knock the shit out of you, especially if it goes from one arm, through your chest, and out the other arm (from experience)! :Q
Click to expand...

Yep. I just got back from a project where I had to make sure the electricians properly wired some new switchgear from the transformer. Sure the transformer fusing was disconnected but I still had my head in there next to the utility line feed. Needless to say, I didn't spend any more time in there than I had to.
 
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