The Answer to - Guess the Safety Violation

Here is the picture from Wednesday.

Look above the cylinder. Yes that sign says EXIT. Emergency exits are for use in emergencies (I know, you would think that was obvious).

So picture this, a fire occurs in the building and the employees rush to evacuate. But FIRST, let move the large cylinder blocking the FIRE DOOR!

Many times Safety is just common sense!

Time to Play - Guess the Safety Violation

This is a picture I took.

Is that one too easy? How about this one.

The one below is from somewhere in India.

(According to the unreliable source I took it from.)

Thirteen GROSS Things

The ThursdayThirteen subject today is GROSS. I can’t think of anything more gross and disgusting than an industrial accident that could have be prevented. At the end of each semester that I teach, I require the students to choose an accident to write a paper on and present in class. There is always much wailing and gnashing of teeth when I announce this, but after the presentations most of the students realize that it was the best part of the semester (and then they throw roses and cash at my feet.)

Here are thirteen of the presentations this semester.

Minamata – It is difficult to call this an accident. This is a case of a corporation dumping untreated chemical waste(knowingly and mostly legal) that was loaded with heavy metals most notably mercury into the Minamata Bay. The company continued this dumping for decades and only stopped when the chemical process no longer required mercury. The result was the mercury poisoning of generations of Japanese fishermen and their families.

DeBruce Grain Elevator Explosion – Grain Elevators are all over rural US and don’t appear to be dangerous, but grain dust explosion are powerful and deadly.

Praxair – This accident happened in St. Louis a few hot summers ago. The scene of compressed gas cylinders flying though the air made for memorable television news coverage.

Mexico City Explosion – In 1985, horribly large LPG (propane and butane) explosions incinerated hundreds of nearby residents in their sleep.

Texas City Disaster - This is the Granddaddy of all US disasters. It happened just after WWII when a large ship containing ammonium nitrate (used in the OK City bombing) exploded killing the crew, the firefighters and several hundred onlookers

BP America Refinery Explosion - A much more recent explosion in Texas City in 2005, that proves that the need for safety education is needed more than ever. The list of things that had to go wrong for this accident to occur is astounding and yet it happened.

Boston Molasses Flood – Although this incident that happened nearly 90 years ago, there are some scary similarities to recent accidents. It starts off sounding like a joke, what is slower than molasses in January. Well this molasses wave traveled 35 miles per hour and was responsible for 21 deaths and hundreds of injuries.

Exxon Valdez – THE environmental disaster of this generation.

Ixtoc Oil Spill – The largest (no scratch that) second largest oil spill in the world after the Gulf War release, it lasted months.

Mayak Nuclear Disaster – The world’s second largest nuclear disaster after Chernobyl, it occurred during the cold war and information is only now being released.

Three Mile Island – This accident is considered to have stopped the nuclear power industry in the US.

Seveso – This was a large release of Dioxin in Italy.

Jilin Chemical Plant Explosion - The details of this explosion have never been released. The spill of toxic chemicals that flowed down river and into neighboring countries was hard to hide.

How I Learned About Safety

I was an undergraduate in the early eighties, it doesn’t seem that long ago, but in the field of safety education, it was light years ago. We had some general instructions on chemistry laboratory safety to try and keep us from blowing up the lab or each other. There was no talk at all about industrial safety, we had no information on how to stay safe while we were working in our chose field and even more importantly how our role as engineers could keep other people safe.

One of the Safety pages I subscribe asked this question today: How did you learn about safety?

This story is more how I didn’t learn about safety, but it is where I first realized the lack of safety.

My entire engineering safety education consisted of one part of one lecture in one course. (To contrast I teach an entire semester of process safety.) We first watched a video that was primarily about laboratory safety, a humorous video about a klutzy professor in the lab and the problems that ensue.

Then we had the big slide show. I think the guest speaker was from the university safety department, he was a young guy from the rural area and had little or no industrial or engineering experience. This was my one and only safety lecture and I have recreated as best as I can from my imperfect memory.

He began, “We had a bunch of unlabeled compressed gas cylinders. Regulations were in the works that would require all chemical containers to be properly labeled and stored. Also these regulations would require that the contents of these containers would have to be properly treated and if the contents were unknown the material would have to be identified and treated appropriately so as to not be a danger to the environment or the community.”

The italicized words are my addition and were not in the original presentation but they should have been.

For those unfamiliar with compressed gas cylinders, here is what they look like. They can contain anything from helium gas at Chuck E. Cheese, to poisonous chlorine gas at the swimming pool, and various gases used in industry.

He continued proudly, “So we took these unlabeled cylinders to an empty field in the middle of nowhere. And we shot our twenty-two rifles at them. That way any vapor would be released far away from people. And if any materials was corrosive or toxic we made sure we stood upwind, I am sure by the time it the vapor drifted near to people it was diluted enough to be safe.”

{gasp}

Let’s list out what happened shall we…

First- they shot rifles at containers of possibly toxic or flammable materials

They took pictures of the entire event

They brought these pictures in as a slide show to TEACH us about safety.

Even more unbelievable, only one student raised their hand and said, “I don’t think that was a very safe thing to do.” I am sorry to say this student was not me.

How to make a geek cry

My last post did not amuse everyone as much as it amused me (Fellow Geeks, where are your comments). Yet it still makes me giggle.

This video is more an example of how geeks shock and horrify each other. Here's a warning -- the contents are kind of graphic. Come back tommorrow if that sort of thing bothers you.

You should know that I am preparing a new safety presentation and have been immersing myself into this sort of stuff 24/7.



Not enough? Here's five more. Don't say I didn't warn you....

Corn can Kill!!

In a week of man vs. produce, the produce appears to be winning.

See this story : Carbon monoxide poisoning fatal to two ADM workers; 16 others sickened

Safety lesson: It is not the fire that kills you, it is the smoke.

In this case, it was not the smoke but the odorless and poisionous gas.

Sugar can Kill!

No not just by increasing obesity or diabetes, sugar can explode and kill you. This week in Georgia raw sugar cane dust ignited and exploded leaving more than four dead.

Most people fear chemical plants not food plants and they don't realize that some of the most violent explosions occur in grain silos and food processing plants. One of my favorite demonstrations is a small explosion with plain old corn starch, KaPow!

A Letter to my Local News

(Foreword: I should mention as a geek, I am very annoyed at sloppy science reporting and even more annoyed at LAZY, sloppy science reporting. Seriously people, it is not rocket science all you have to do is ask a few questions...)

I am a long time viewer of Channel 5 news. The last few nights there have been stories about the increasing flu-like symptoms of people visiting the emergency rooms. After each story I think, what was the point of that story?

There is information missing from this report: Do the people at the emergency room have the flu or flu-like symptoms? How is this diagnosed (there is some question at the CDC and within the medical community as to what is the best and most reliable test for the flu? Of these people in the emergency room, how many have received the flu vaccine? Does the flu vaccine contain the same strain of flu as those in the emergency room? If the medical community doesn’t know, are they testing for it and when will they know?

If the goal of this report is to increase the number of people receiving the flu vaccine, then this seems like good information that would help convince them.

If the goal of the report is to stop people from reporting to the emergency room (most people are told to go home take aspirin or acetaminophen and drink fluids), then maybe a list of warning signs would be appropriate. Doctors say if you feel flu-like symptoms, rest, drink plenty of fluids and treat symptoms with aspirin and acetaminophen. Please contact your doctor is symptoms do not improve after several days or the patient shows sign of dehydration, etc.

Without these investigative details, the story reads as, “Ice is cold.”


I am sure you meant better.
Thank you for your time and attention,

How do I really feel about the flu vaccine?

Read this report

or this report

Real Answers to Real Homework Questions

Question: What is the worst thing that could happen to you as an engineer in industry?

Answer: Developing a vaccine that cures cancer only to find it actually turns people into vampires.

Song of the Canary

One of the safety videos I show my students is a documentary "Song of the Canary". It is a story of men working in a pesticide company. During the filiming, it is discovered that an overwhelming number of men working in the plant are sterile. Even more shocking is the discovery of a study of the chemical on rats that clearly showed adverse health effects, published by scientist that work FOR THE SAME COMPANY and has sat on the shelf unheeded for years.

The comfrontation with the company VP leads to maybe my favorite quote in movie documentary history.*

Lindley (The company VP): Well there was a study, funded by Dow, and, that, the Torkelson study, Dr. Torkelson, and it did not show sterility in rats. What it showed was that with very high doses of DBCP you could get testicular atrophy, if you will; the shriveling up of the testicles. I've talked to, uh, two scientists who are familiar with that work and they both say heck, we just, we just didn't draw the conclusion that there'd be sterility from the fact that the testicles were shriveling up.

This quote always makes me want to go up to men and ask' "Would it be okay with you if your testicles shriveled up? I mean as long as you didn't become sterile"?

In fact if there are any men reading this or if you know any men, ask them and report back to me.

*By favorite, I mean most unf&*%king unbelievable, and does not diminish my sympathies for the men and families at Occidental Chemical Company.

I hope it's not a relative

This is what I saw on the highway last Saturday.

The engineer in me appreciated the efficiency. For this crew there was no wasted time and motion used in disassembling the playground. And LOOK now have a two story truck, why not use the area for more storage. That'll save you one fourth of a trip!

The safety instructor in me gasped.

The blogger in me reached for the camera.

For more "safety" photos see here:

The Naval Safety Center

Safety Rap

I have no idea where to start blogging so I will begin by posting a link to the very best safety video ever. And yes I collect safety videos, so if you think you have a better one, Bring it!

http://www.coaa.ab.ca/conferences/bestpracticesxv/tabid/119/default.aspx