Safety dance
Feb. 25th, 2003 03:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beetigerI don't usually have a dreadfully unsafe job. It's a food lab, after all, so most of what I work with is, in theory, edible. Yes, I work with a number of chemicals that could probably do you a significant amount of damage were you to ingest them in large quantities, like pure caffeine and Blue Dye #1, and a smaller number which could do some damage if you poured them on yourself, like phosphoric acid or boiling water. And occasionally, I lift heavy things, even though I'm not really strong, and I could probably drop them on my foot or strain my back or something.
But not today. Today, I ended up being part of a study that simulates the cleaning of reusable PET packaging. (Yes, in Europe they still have returnable bottles, including plastic ones in some cases.) This consisted of dunking cases of bottles in a vat of hot concentrated sodium hydoxide solution. So I got a full-body tyvex suit, a big face shield, a moderately serious respirator, heavy latex gloves, and heavy neoprene gloves over those that went up to the shoulder and were four sizes too big. I did not, however, get a thank you from the person running the experiment.
On the plus side, the respirator, aka half-face gas mask, is "disposable", so I get to keep it, for future biological warfare or costuming needs. And now I know what to do if I ever need to take a cat swimming, as I did, in fact, stay perfectly dry despite plunging my arms well past the elbows into caustic material for hours.
But not today. Today, I ended up being part of a study that simulates the cleaning of reusable PET packaging. (Yes, in Europe they still have returnable bottles, including plastic ones in some cases.) This consisted of dunking cases of bottles in a vat of hot concentrated sodium hydoxide solution. So I got a full-body tyvex suit, a big face shield, a moderately serious respirator, heavy latex gloves, and heavy neoprene gloves over those that went up to the shoulder and were four sizes too big. I did not, however, get a thank you from the person running the experiment.
On the plus side, the respirator, aka half-face gas mask, is "disposable", so I get to keep it, for future biological warfare or costuming needs. And now I know what to do if I ever need to take a cat swimming, as I did, in fact, stay perfectly dry despite plunging my arms well past the elbows into caustic material for hours.
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no subject
Date: 2003-02-26 09:08 am (UTC)