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Dangerous stuff you do at work

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Taking inventory of the inorganic and organic and waste rooms in a Chemistry department at a university. I have no fucking idea what most of that shit was I inventoried. I don't want to know.
 
Ether, Potassium Hydroxide crystals (without gloves), Syringe needles (sterile, but been stabbed a few times)
 
I'm a server tech, so the most dangerous thing I may do is play with very big 30 amp power cords, or play around a 600 volt UPS. That might be like, once a year? The IT manager there is very anal and does not like new stuff, or changes, by his definitions we should not even be in the server room. So yeah, sitting on our office chairs is probably the most dangerous day to day task.

The easily contactable C Diff, H1N1, and other stuff might be a danger in this environment too. (Hospital) but still rather minor when you consider all the precautions that are in place. Not like we're surrounded by sick people on our floor.
 
We blew up a battery while recharging it. It was a pack of 5; one blew up on my coworker's desk throwing the pack into the air where the rest exploded like a fragmentation grenade. It blew out two windows and knocked my coworker pretty good on the head and arm. Then the whole office filled with smoke and his desk caught on fire.

That was an interesting day...
 
Originally posted by: xSauronx
Originally posted by: boomerang

*snip*
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jesus fucking christ dude, have you picked a horrible career path or what?
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It's the path I chose, so ... I guess the answer may be yes. Remember though that a lot of the hazards in the kind of environments I worked in weren't known or perhaps were consciously ignored during a lot of that time frame.

It took OSHA and other regulatory agencies to start making the changes (and enforcing them) to make these workplaces safer places to work. The majority of the hazards are eliminated and/or minimized now. Also, the workforce is educated concerning the hazards and management is required to enforce the rules. Things were very lax for many decades.

Of course all this raised the price of doing business. Offset to some degree I would think by reduced medical costs. I don't know any statistics.

I'm retired, it's all behind me now. I hope to live to a ripe old age and die in my sleep. The last 6 or 7 years of my 'career' I worked in an office environment so overall that's got to be a plus.
 
Not much that'd risk my health but do deal with millions worth of servers and gear that generate millions in business so if I screw up big it could cost a lot.
 
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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same here.....nothing better than going into a vault and having your gas detector go crazy or see exposed 480 in a wet place. Also....one of my clients has a future project. We have to get rid of an old gravity thickner that has been unused for 7 years. problem though....they never got rid of the waste that has been sitting in there. I made it a point that i was not going to be on site when they remove that thing.
 
Funny you mentioned HF. I make 800,000 pounds a day in 99.99% strength. Then we have fun and water down some of it to 70% and 49% strengths. Good stuff.
 
In my professional life I've worked with/on:

1. Nuclear reactors
2. Multi tesla superconducting magnets
3. High power lasers
4. Toluene/benzene/oleum/phenol/ammonia
5. 345KV

The list goes on, those are just highlights of the fun.
 
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 🙂
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Saw pics of that at MARF. My reactors were all in pressure vessels so I didn't get to see any pretty blue lights. 🙁
 
Used to do semiconductor cleaning as the first step of my research.

Baths of HF, baths of HCL/HNO3, and baths of Piranha solution (H2SO4/H2O2). This stuff was always scary. The Piranha was always at 120C so it had a weird look to it.


Someone accidentally dropped a bottle of acetone into the hot Piranha. Let's just say that that hood no longer exists and the person (who luckily wasn't hurt) no longer is allowed to use the wet benches.
 
Driving.

I'm a transport tech and part of my job is surfing the highways looking for "issues". On Thursday, I had to merge about 20 times in the afternoon. Because the review dealt with on and off ramps, I had to skip across 5 lanes a few times to make certain exits.

Other times, I've driven 100 Km in heavy rain on freeways, drove 250 Km on Wednesday to another city, parked on the side of busy highways and gotten out on said highways to take pictures or make notes. I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a thrill out of it.
 
Any number of scenarios with excavators and large excavations and operating near the maximum tipping points and side hills, with live high voltage and high pressure gas lines. Be careful but hurry up.
 
I stand under a sheet of paper that is moving at over 40 mph over my head. Thats about the most dangerous. Oh wait, I drive to work. Thats the most dangerous part of my job.
 
Ladders... I have an amazing fear of heights. I can only go up 2 rungs before I really lose it. The one time while changing a data projector I had to go up *4* rungs to reach it. I was shaking, but I did it.
 
Originally posted by: Possessed Freak
Ladders... I have an amazing fear of heights. I can only go up 2 rungs before I really lose it. The one time while changing a data projector I had to go up *4* rungs to reach it. I was shaking, but I did it.
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:thumbsup:

Most people don't realize that by not facing fears you make them stronger. If you are afraid of heights and in a situation avoid them , then that brings you relief which reinforces your belief that being afraid of heights is a good thing.

It is the whole risk vs reward thing.
 
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