A Bad Day at Work

I stopped to visit a friend once some years ago, and he had the lid off his septic tank. I told him not to fall in while I was there because I damn sure wasn't going in after him...

Jon

In a similar vein is silo gas. Haven't heard of one lately but farmers(or unloader repairmen) die in these in a very unfortunate manner as well.

I don't remember the exact gas(of several), but one of them is a little hydroscopic as well so your lungs basically dry out and even if you get out in time, chances are you will still die because the lungs are damaged beyond functionality.

JW

I grew up in a small rural mining and ag community. By 2nd grade I had learned:

A) Don't play with blasting caps. B) Don't play in silos C) The dentist limps because he lost a leg playing on freight train cars as a kid.

Couple of pints of scrumpy & a Vindaloo will soon clear it - then you can sit with your bum in the snow!!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- snipped-for-privacy@boltblue.com John Lloyd - Cymru/Wales

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Back when I was a teenager I made maple syrup every spring. My neighbor did likewise though with far less experience then me: Hey, I was 14 and he was only 13. We didn't see him at school one day and I went over to find out why that evening. It seemed when he was pouring off a pan of boiling syrup, it was finished, he slipped and poured it into his rubber boot. Ruined the syrup and the doctor cut his boot off so he had nothing to show for the effort but a lot of scars. Leigh at MarMachine

And the wonderfully deadly gases that can collect in a telephone or power manhole - Hydrogen Sulfide can get you as easily as Oxygen depletion. They drilled that one into your head all the time - Do NOT go charging in after a co-worker and get yourself killed, too.

Probably why I keep an old 1/3 HP 120V 2-speed furnace blower around, with a 6x10x6" Round HVAC boot, and assorted lengths of 6" flex furnace duct.

I may not have a $1,000 Toxic/Combustible Gas Detector, or a megabuck purpose built "Manhole Ventilator Fan" but the important thing is to ventilate /any/ confined space thoroughly before entry, and continuously while inside.

And for things like a septic tank, get it pumped dry first. Remove all sources that could replenish the gas supply faster than you can dilute and drive it out with fresh air ventilation.

Why is Common Sense so uncommon? ;-)

-->--

"Bruce L. Bergman" wrote

And sometimes it doesn't make a difference. I left the oilfield in 1980 to move back to Las Vegas after eight years in the Gulf of Mexico. I was working for Reading and Bates Drilling Company, and they wanted to send me on the Randolph Yost on its maiden trip to Bahrain.

I had had it with oilfield work, and though they would have flown me back and forth from Las Vegas for 28 day hitches, I went back to hotel work, and retired from the oilfield.

I read soon after I turned down that job that they hit some H2S, and they lost 27 men. I have heard with H2S, when you realize something's going on, it's too late. Don't know if I have ever gotten a sniff of it in minute amounts on the rigs, as everything smells of sulphur to one degree or another.

Confined Space Entry is about as complicated a thing as you can get into in a work situation. It has some of the most complex laws and procedures OSHA can dream up.

And still, men die regularly. Men who work with these things for a long time. And men who try to help a fallen worker.

Steve

On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 04:19:32 GMT, Bruce L. Bergman calmly ranted:

Amen. "THIMK" ;)

$209.95 now.

A small shop vac with the hose on the output would do the same thing as your furnace blower. Drop the hose down the hole, remotely open the manhole/septic lid, and give it a few minutes to vent.

Excellent idea. Let the pumper open the tank himself.

Indeed. And who's the idiot who thought up the lovely term "conventional wisdom"? In the usual context I see it being used, it means "Wull, JimmyJoeBob always done it like that."

---------------------------------------------------------- --== EAT RIGHT...KEEP FIT...DIE ANYWAY ==--

- Schnazzy Tees online

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The toxicicty of H2S is highly under-rated. True story:

A co-worker at GTE labs had a lecture bottle of H2S. He connected the regulator, and thought that maybe the connection was leaking (lecture bottle regulators typically use nylon gaskets which get worn over time) and so, in his own words, he "stupidly sniffed the connection."

The sniff of gas knocked him out, and fortunately he dropped the bottle and it fell away from him. He experienced no long term injuries from this event but it was apparently a sobering experience for him.

Jim

IIRC, H2S has the same toxicity as HCN. Bad stuff. The only reason HCN scares people more is that it's used for execution, and trace amounts of H2S smell so bad people assume it's just a bad smell.

-- Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

I don't have to like Bush and Cheney (Or Kerry, for that matter) to love America

I was warned that if you could smell HS2 and then you couldn't, it was definitely time to get the hell out of there. At certain levels it could destroy your olfactory receptors before it would kill you.

That's what C. said. You stop smelling it, then you die.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

I believe it was just yesterday up here in Canada that two, possibly three people died in an accident involving H2S.

It was a sump, dugout, well (whatever) where someone went down to inspect or repair something and passed out. Another person went down to rescue them and were also overcome. I believe at that stage that a third person who was an experienced off duty fireman went down and were also overcome and died.

Perhaps one of my fellow Canadians more familiar with the details could correct me if I am wrong.

In any event it is a hell of a way to go.

So, how do you know you're smelling it? How does *anyone* even know what it smells like? Jeezuz, now I've got the heebie-jeebies over this..

You can detect H2S at 3 parts per Billion with your nose and a couple of minutes at 3 parts per Million will do you in. Take a whiff of a rotten egg and you know H2S....

Craig C. snipped-for-privacy@ev1.net

for those leery of 'tiny urls' couple of interesting facts - odour threshold ca 0.2 ppt (thats parts per TRILLION!)

There is a rapid loss of sense of smell on exposure to gas concentrations above 150 ppm, and this means that the extent of exposure may be underestimated.

Highly toxic - may be fatal if inhaled. Inhalation of a single breath at a concentration of 1000 ppm ( 0.1% ) may cause coma.

I had the distinction of causing a rather interesting panic in my high school with this stuff when a lab equipment malfunction resulted in the evacuation of an entire wing - no real danger but the shit sure hit the fan! I think I knew the thread count of the carpet on the principle's office floor by the time I left that school. I loved the chem' lab - blew it up - TWICE! And that doesn't count the time I introduced a substitute teacher to a rather violent chemical reaction. That time I had taken it upon myself to demonstrate to the assembled 'chem freaks' the reactive nature of metallic sodium (metal content) when placed in intimate contact with water. My plan was to place a small sample of said metal in a bucket of water on the school grounds outside the lab . Upon geting an explanation of what was planned the teacher insisted on performing this task herself. Oh, by the way, did I mention that it was raining at the time? Now _I_ would have shielded that sample from the rain on the way to the bucket................. No teachers were harmed in the making of this legend. Rules were changed. Regards. Ken.

Yet another true story: a large research facility for a major corporation had employees working in battery technology. They used a considerable amount of lithium metal, in sheet form.

A cursory check of the periodical table of epaulets reveals that lithium and sodium behave in similar fashion.

The security folks there decided the lithium metal had to be disposed of 'properly' so they made the company construct a large concrete disposal (swimming) pool out in the back 40.

When the time came to christen the pool they decided that the researchers were not skilled enough to perform the task so they took the waste metal and wadded it up into a ball.

Bad idea say the researchers, cut it into small pieces and toss them in a few at a time.

"We know what we're doing" say the officals. There was no "hold my beer and watch this" but the effect was the same.

Boom.

Splash of water.

The concrete fractured, the pool never held water after that.

Jim

Then there's arsine. This smells like garlic.

A co-worker had the bad luck to enter a gas cylinder cabinet after a) the tank connection had been leaking a tiny bit, b) the fan belt on the ventilation motor had broken, and c) the second fan belt on the motor also had broken.

He left immediately but not before noticing the aroma of garlic. He sustained some kidney damage but it was not permanent.

Arsine: AsH3 IIRC.

Silane anyone? SiH4. Pyrophoric, and the soot is nothing but sand.

Jim

Quite true. H2S is very common here in the oil fields and used to kill a number of people every year.

Now the oil companies require H2S detectors be worn by every person working in H2s rich areas. And it may be found in low lying areas below well sites, up to 1/4 mile away, etc etc.

Nasty stuff and tends to make rubber and other materials fail prematurely, even when located miles away down wind.

Gunner

"She's (my daughter) already dating a sex offender. Better that than a republican fundie neocon fascist." FF, (alt.machines.cnc)