My turn: WEAR YOUR PPE!

"Kiltedpadre" (kiltedpadre)
03/09/2019 at 18:32 • Filed to: None

I’ve seen a couple posts here and one from David Tracy on the front page about PPE and figured I’d share mine from this week.

I work around chlorine gas cylinders, and my employer requires us to wear full face respirators while doing it. We all were pretty hesitant about it at first because between the 6 guys involved we have over 120 years experience with chlorine systems and have always been fine using the old: isolate the line, hold your breath when cracking any seal, and have a rescue air tank nearby Incase things go sideways.

This week I was glad I went in looking like this:

To put it mildly things went very sideways. We were hit with the double whammy of a defective gas cylinder and a defective feed regulator.

The stem on the cylinder is apparently damaged and turning it to what should’ve been off didn’t shut off the gas flow. That caused it to build up pressure inside the regulator. No big deal, the regulator is designed with a valve to vent excess pressure. I’m betting you can guess which part of the regulator failed, the pressure vent.

We use a bottle of ammonia when we open connection. Use squeeze gas towards the connection and white smoke means there’s chlorine present. We always get a tiny cloud due to residual in the lines.

That day we got a smoke cloud that would’ve made the crowd at a vaping competition proud. It was BAD! Thankfully we were ready with the safety cap and got it slapped into place.

If we hadn’t worn our goofy respirators we would’ve both gone to the hospital without a doubt. The chlorine smell left in our clothes was bad enough that we were told to leave our respirators on till we had aired out a few minutes. With the respirator on I never even smelled it.

DISCUSSION (12)

facw > Kiltedpadre
03/09/2019 at 18:59

Glad to hear it worked out ok. I’ve only had one job that required any sort of protection, and that was just lame steel- toed shoes (for working around 800lb carts, and forklifts).

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Kiltedpadre
03/09/2019 at 19:02

I am so glad you are all okay, chlorine gas is nothing to take lightly. There was a train derailment about 20 years ago and a few gas cars breached, it killed everything in a couple mile radius.

Don’t forget to install new cartridges!

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > Kiltedpadre
03/09/2019 at 19:04

Chlorine in general is just a big nope from me.

phenotyp > Kiltedpadre
03/09/2019 at 19:40

Rule#1: If you’re gonna fuck around with deadly stuff, WEAR YOUR GEAR.

Addendum to Rule #1: HAVE YOUR GEAR.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Kiltedpadre
03/09/2019 at 19:43

We once had a guy suck a big old load of ozone directly into his lungs when he was checking whether a tube was clear...with his mouth. Didn’t realize the other end was connected and it flipped on automatically at that moment to blow some O3. Could have easily killed the guy, but it just resulted in him coughing and being hoarse for a few days. Lucky that it wasn’t a lot worse.

I have rarely been anywhere that PPE was necessary, but I got training due to what some of my employers did...

Kiltedpadre > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
03/09/2019 at 20:09

At one of my old employers they still talked about someone that had retired about three years before I got there. He had tried to quit smoking for years. The thing that finally made him quit was the lung damage he suffered after getting gassed because he hadn’t properly sealed to a cylinder containing one ton of chlorine. His first mistake was thinking he’d done it enough he didn’t need a second person with him.

The fire department came to the facility because the chlorine alarm was going off. They found him unconscious in the parking lot a few feet outside the door of the chlorine building.

Kiltedpadre > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now)
03/09/2019 at 20:16

This definitely got my attention. I’m still completely opposed to my employers plan to switch to liquid chlorine. It’s definitely safer to handle and work with, but you end out need to work with and handle it far more often because the dosing systems aren’t as reliable and there are big swings in terms of quality and strength.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Kiltedpadre
03/09/2019 at 20:20

I get made fun of for it, but I usually wear PPE when doing manual power downs of hybrids and electrics. Never had one go sideways, but still better to look like a goofy monkey than be dead.

Kiltedpadre > facw
03/09/2019 at 20:20

The chlorine is definitely the most dangerous thing we work with. Second would be the crews that work on below grade excavations.

I also deal with some acids and CO2 gas, but other than that my job is fairly safe as far as industrial type jobs go.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Kiltedpadre
03/09/2019 at 20:23

That is terrifying. I couldn’t imagine being unconscious from chlorine, I’m amazed he survived.

Cash Rewards > Kiltedpadre
03/09/2019 at 21:08

I used to work with cell cultures, and if someone didn’t have the proper setup to work with acrylimide and bi s-acrylimide I would just walk out. Inheritable genetic defects was the line for me. It was always in the back of my mind during my wife’s pregnancies

MiniGTI - now with XJ6 > Kiltedpadre
03/09/2019 at 22:06

I had a nasty smell coming from one of my basement rooms at home and found some wet pieces of paper on the floor. Fearing mold in the carpet my wife made me get a respirator when I went down there to deal with it. I was glad I did - fortunately I didn’t actually see any mold and with the respirator I couldn’t smell it which was nice.

Fortunately the problem wasn’t TOO widespread and I was able to just cut out the areas of damp carpet and remove some wet items of junk I should have tossed anyway. Couple days later no smell at all.