What hazards exist in your workplace?

[grits]

Feb 10, 2014 14:37:11 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

Feb 10, 2014 14:36:07 GMT -5 grits said:

I work in those scary neighborhoods. I've been there when murders went down, all kinds of stuff. I have been sexually harassed, and groped so many times I can't even begin to count them all, both genders. I have been stalked by three diff peeps.  I have to wear baggy clothes, and long shirts to cover everything to help keep them at bay.  It does work part of the time.  

But it will be all worth it when they only cut your pension by half when you retire. 

They've already chopped my pension. In 1987, Congress reached back and forced all Federal employees who had hired in from 1984 on into Social Security. It was a win win for them. Social Security was already broke in 1983, and Congress had spent all of the pension funds too. They are stealing our 401k contributions, and it ticks me off. I know there has to be a hell for politicians, and it won't be divided up according to political party.

[Phoenix84]

Feb 10, 2014 14:25:13 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

Uh... messing up your back moving/unpacking boxes.  Boxes of puzzles and books can get reasonably heavy.  Other than that I can't think of anything.  Getting robbed I guess.  I stand behind a register most of the day, so some addict with a gun could come in here anytime and shoot me for the few hundred bucks in the register.

Don't all store clerks keep a shotgun behind the counter.  Haven't you seen how they do it in the movies?

[Sum Dum Gai]

Can't do it.  I have kids in here constantly.  Can you image the lawsuit if some kid got behind my counter and fired the shotgun?  It would make national news, even if nobody was hurt.

[Phoenix84]

Feb 10, 2014 14:26:19 GMT -5 comom1 said:

Jet engines are the biggie.  There's also a lot of ground equipment moving near us and you won't hear it so you need to keep your head moving around.  There are chemicals, fumes, lavatory waste, heights, heavy bags and, this time of year, snow and ice.  You just have to be hyper-aware of your surroundings all the time.  I've seen what happens when you walk behind a running engine or in front of a tractor.  It isn't pretty.  I've been spared seeing someone ingested into an engine, but I've seen pictures of the aftermath.  Pay attention and know the rules on hazardous materials and waste.  Those two things should keep you fairly safe.

Isn't lightning strikes a danger on airport runways?  I've heard of several people getting struck by lightning because there's little shelter around and you're often the tallest thing around.

[comom1]

One of the toughest things for me is loading and unloading caskets.  They're some of the heaviest freight we handle, typically around 500 lbs., so you really have to be careful.  If you're lucky, you'll have three people to do it, but most of the time it's just two of us.  Thank god for belt loaders.  They cut down on the amount of lifting.

[comom1]

Feb 10, 2014 14:48:33 GMT -5 Phoenix84 said:

Feb 10, 2014 14:26:19 GMT -5 comom1 said:

Jet engines are the biggie.  There's also a lot of ground equipment moving near us and you won't hear it so you need to keep your head moving around.  There are chemicals, fumes, lavatory waste, heights, heavy bags and, this time of year, snow and ice.  You just have to be hyper-aware of your surroundings all the time.  I've seen what happens when you walk behind a running engine or in front of a tractor.  It isn't pretty.  I've been spared seeing someone ingested into an engine, but I've seen pictures of the aftermath.  Pay attention and know the rules on hazardous materials and waste.  Those two things should keep you fairly safe.

Isn't lightning strikes a danger on airport runways?  I've heard of several people getting struck by lightning because there's little shelter around and you're often the tallest thing around.

Yeah, especially in Colorado.  They do pull us off the ramp as soon as they can, but I had a friend get struck.  Fortunately, she survived.

[Deleted]

I work in an office so, not much compared to the rest of you, but over the last couple of months I've been plagued with neck and shoulder pains from almost 40 years of sitting at a desk. I'm trying to work through it with more exercise, including resistamce training and stretches. My employer does provide standings desks on request and I'm pretty close to requesting one.

[wvugurl26]

The usual office stuff like paper cuts. I suppose the security guards or homeland security cops could go cray cray and shoot up the place. And since it's a federal facility we could be targeted. Gate access is secured and there is additional screening to enter the buildings.

I did get sick one day from fumes entering the building. They were coating the roof and doing solar panel prep. A lot of us got sick that day and went home. I have bad allergies and asthma and my coworker was pregnant. Our boss told us to go home NOW.

I suppose you could fall in the pond out back if you leaned too far over the rail. Or get bit if you were messing with the geese that hang around.

We have loading docks but I have nothing to do with that area. Or I suppose you could hurt yourself in the gym we have.

I was saddened by the death of the mail carrier in Landover but that's why I keep my butt out of PG County. Nothing good ever happens there. The sheriff's office didn't rack up 25k outstanding warrants because it's full of nice law abiding citizens.

[chiver78]

Feb 10, 2014 14:28:20 GMT -5 Phoenix84 said:

Feb 10, 2014 14:20:20 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

What hazards don't exist in my workplace is probably easier to answer.

I got chemicals that are carcinogens, teratogens and can cause all sorts of fun stuff to go wrong with various body organs.

We're a BSL-2 lab which means bacteria is around someplace.  We don't work with anything super serious but you could get sick if you're immune compromised in anyway and get exposed.

I deal with body fluids, which are supposed to be screened but you never know.

Following proper OSHA and biosafety handling procedures will keep you safe, but a lab is most definetly not a place for stupid people.

I know what you mean.  One of our scientists works with hydroflouric acid in the dark.  For those of you who don't know, HF will kill you if you come into direct contact with it.

if you fell into a vat of it, yeah. just be diligent with PPE and your handling of it, and it's safe enough to work with. I spent a co-op job mixing solutions for spectrometry testing that had a baseline HF percentage. I survived.

[genericname]

Everything we do has risk except writing reports, haha. Well, I guess we could get carpal tunnel or something from that.

What comes to mind first are:

Car accidents, getting shot, stabbed, beat up, stalked by a crazy after they get out of prison, being taken hostage, freezing to death in a remote area, getting shot by friendly fire on the range, lead poisoning from the lead pipes in our "historic" building.

Since I'm on desk duty for another couple of weeks, a paper cut is the most dangerous thing I'm facing for now.

[chiver78]

Feb 10, 2014 14:26:29 GMT -5 swamp said:

a really pissed on criminal defense client, and paper cuts.

   I would imagine that client wouldn't be very happy about those circumstances.


in my workplace, there's a lot of different hazards. I work in biopharma manufacturing.

chemical - waste neutralization systems that use concentrated acids and bases to bring wastewater to an appropriate pH before releasing to sewer.

thermal - steam systems that produce steam to be distributed to labs and production in various locations in our buildings. we actually had a serious incident before the holidays, one of the electricians was severely burned by steam that leaked out from a faulty valve. he was out of work for almost 3 months while he healed.

electrical - there's everything from the low voltage instrumentation that I deal with, to 480V panels at the higher end of what I will touch, all the way up to stuff in the hundreds of kV.

and those are just the first things that come to mind.

[Chocolate Lover]

I'm about the biggest hazard around here, in the wrong mood of course

It's an office, paper cuts and carpal tunnel are about it on a daily basis. 

[cael]

Where do I start... not as bad as some people, but I'm a municipal health inspector. We go into some sketch situations sometimes. I sliced myself with an exacto knife years ago and had an ER trip because of that... I was exposed to TB last summer (through someone's negligence who should've known better) so had to get tests and stuff done for that. Once several years ago we were at a house and a huge drug bust went down, my coworker and a cop were upstairs in this apartment and the entire PD swarmed the neighborhood and ambulances showed up, I thought coworker had been shot or something (luckily the cop had just fallen chasing a guy down the stairs) We sometimes never know what we're walking into so that can create safety issues.

re: bugs - I found a bedbug in my room last month and LOST MY SHIT I was so freaked out (I think it was a loner that hitched home with me on my shoes or something, because we haven't found anymore). So there's a very real risk of us bringing things like that home, even though we're super careful.

Then there's our constantly-disturbing-sounding elevator, which might be the worst hazard in our office.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Slightly off elevators are the worst.  The ones in our old building would shudder constantly, and occasionally have a slight hitch where you're going up and it would kind of stall for a second.  It wouldn't actually drop, but it was a pretty abrupt slight pause on the way up.  They'd get stuck between floors at least a few times a year as well.  It was almost enough to make me take the stairs, almost.  I'm super lazy though.

[genericname]

I didn't even think of the biohazard stuff. We get lots of vaccinations, but you never know when a bad guy is going to have TB, Hepatitis, or HIV. Hopefully I'll never get stuck on the job, but it's always a possibility when dealing with the sketchy among us.

[Nazgul Girl]

Feb 10, 2014 14:14:28 GMT -5 Phoenix84 said:

Feb 10, 2014 14:09:46 GMT -5 Nazgul Girl said:

   Weird coworkers and (some) weird bosses are the biggest hazard in my workplace.   Seriously !

What do you mean?  Are the weird bosses and weird co workers causing stress related illness?

Anyways, I thought you were retiring because your bosses were being  jerks about taking vacation.

Any weirdness or nasty behavior which causes me undue stress and causes my coworkers to quit or be transferred is what I consider a workplace hazard.   Unfortunately, some coworkers live in fear of some worker going postal with a gun, although that seems to have died down or not.   I don't share that fear, but it was a possibility at one time.   My workplace is very, very strange at this point in time.  

I am retiring because I want out, I am burned out, I don't like the lack of planning, and I don't like the incompetency which seems to creep in more and more each month.    Also, hard-ass on vacations, of course.   The idea to let the providers ( physicians and nurse practioners and physicans assistants ) do their own coding is pretty poor.   A few audits will show the problems that are rife with that idea.   

I have offered to stay on for another year if I can work 20 hours a week.   I understand that I may not get that wish, but on the other hand, we have tried to position ourselves for retirement, I would like to work from home as a remote coder for however many hours and not be in the asylum at all, and I am still a certified coder, and there seem to be quite a few jobs out there, so we shall see.

It's good to have choices, I guess.

[Nazgul Girl]

Feb 10, 2014 14:55:41 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

I work in an office so, not much compared to the rest of you, but over the last couple of months I've been plagued with neck and shoulder pains from almost 40 years of sitting at a desk. I'm trying to work through it with more exercise, including resistamce training and stretches. My employer does provide standings desks on request and I'm pretty close to requesting one.

Athena, I used to work with a coder who had been equipped with one of those standing desks due to her Parkinsons' disease.   I asked her if she ever got tired of standing, or waiting for it to adjust back down if she wanted to sit down, and she said that she loved it !   Evidently, it helped with her tremors.

She retired on medical a few months ago, after a courageous battle to continue to work.   She was cool.

[cael]

Feb 10, 2014 15:17:53 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

Slightly off elevators are the worst.  The ones in our old building would shudder constantly, and occasionally have a slight hitch where you're going up and it would kind of stall for a second.  It wouldn't actually drop, but it was a pretty abrupt slight pause on the way up.  They'd get stuck between floors at least a few times a year as well.  It was almost enough to make me take the stairs, almost.  I'm super lazy though.

Oh god yeah. This elevator in our building grinds and jerks around sometimes between floors and is always out of date on its inspection. It's gotten stuck with people in it several times in the years I've worked here. We swear it's going down one day and we just hope one of us is in it, there'd be our unicorn of a lawsuit against the city! 

[wyouser]

We rent space from the local power company who have available......pop, candy, and other snacks all extremely hazardous to your weight!

[Deleted]

Feb 10, 2014 15:18:28 GMT -5 genericname said:

I didn't even think of the biohazard stuff. We get lots of vaccinations, but you never know when a bad guy is going to have TB, Hepatitis, or HIV.

Hadn't thought of that, but I did get vaccinated against 2 types of hepatitis when I started traveling to India.  Come to think of it, in the tame world of insurance I know a couple of guys who went on a business trip to a previous employer's Ivory Coast office and got malaria, and one exeutive who got something so bad (Hepatitis?) from something he ate in the far East that he needed a liver transplant.  I took my anti-malaria meds in India but did have a couple of nasty instances of intestinal upset even though I was careful about what I ate and drank.

[Apple]

Let's see...  Death, or surviving a big arc flash, would probably be the worst ones, but...

Exposure to chemicals
Lead paint
Asbestos
Death by--falls, crushing, electrocution, blasts that might not burn you, but the pressure from them could ruin your insides...
Coworkers who don't get fired when they show up drunk
Incompetent coworkers (if they don't do something correctly, it puts you in harm's way)
My own screw ups (fingers crossed, haven't caused any decent ones for a while)
Carbon Dioxide inhalation if I don't escape a "fire extinguishing " in time, could be enough to kill me

ETA: I have to work around raw sewage as well--like pumps/floats at the poo plant/lift stations

I'm sure there's lots more things that could kill me though.

Some prevention methods: Fall protection, arc flash clothing, insulated tools, alarms with time delays for CO2 dumps, training

However, bosses who refuse to do anything about dangerous employees can override a lot of that prevention.  I'm curious to know, when someone has been reported multiple times, and the boss does nothing--who do they expect will take a lot of the fall when that employee kills or seriously injures someone?  I don't get it.

[milee]

Feb 10, 2014 15:35:20 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

Feb 10, 2014 15:18:28 GMT -5 genericname said:

I didn't even think of the biohazard stuff. We get lots of vaccinations, but you never know when a bad guy is going to have TB, Hepatitis, or HIV.

Hadn't thought of that, but I did get vaccinated against 2 types of hepatitis when I started traveling to India.  Come to think of it, in the tame world of insurance I know a couple of guys who went on a business trip to a previous employer's Ivory Coast office and got malaria, and one exeutive who got something so bad (Hepatitis?) from something he ate in the far East that he needed a liver transplant.  I took my anti-malaria meds in India but did have a couple of nasty instances of intestinal upset even though I was careful about what I ate and drank.

That's because India has more types of hepatitis, viruses (virii?), bacteria, bugs and random sick-making thingies than we have names for, much less can get vaccinations for.   But I'm with you, I take the anti-malarials in any areas with malaria.  Yes, sometimes they can make you feel a little sick, but not sick enough to risk malaria for. 

As for workplace hazards, we manufacture electronics using mostly automated equipment, so there are lots of machines and hazards.  SMT pick and place, reflow oven (think superheated 25' oven that things move through on a conveyor belt and pop out the other end while still ungodly hot), wave solder machine (think large, open put of molten solder that is forced up into a fountain so when boards pass over it, the parts are soldered on), cleaning station chemicals, hand held soldering irons, electrocution while testing, etc.  So burns and lead exposure are very possible.  The incoming raw materials can be in heavy boxes or on pallets and shipping the finished product can be heavy as well.

I didn't post on the thread about bringing kids to work, but as you can guess from the above description, most of the building is not safe for kids.  We try to be flexible with our employees and if someone needs to bring in a kid that can stay in the nondangerous areas (break room, meeting room, offices), that's fine but it's a tough place to have kids.

[Malarky]

White lung, hearing loss, burns, cuts, falls, pulled muscles and obesity. 

Baking's a bitch!

[alabamagal]

I used to work for a pharmaceutical company in manufacturing.  We handled highly toxic chemical in large doses, many of them flammable, and highly potent substances (our products). 

During a safety presentation one year, the put up all the statistics and one of the most dangerous jobs in the company was actually sales person, because they were in their car on company time a lot.  One year there were 4 deaths - this was a very LARGE company.

[cael]

Feb 10, 2014 15:52:43 GMT -5 milee said:

Feb 10, 2014 15:35:20 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

Hadn't thought of that, but I did get vaccinated against 2 types of hepatitis when I started traveling to India.  Come to think of it, in the tame world of insurance I know a couple of guys who went on a business trip to a previous employer's Ivory Coast office and got malaria, and one exeutive who got something so bad (Hepatitis?) from something he ate in the far East that he needed a liver transplant.  I took my anti-malaria meds in India but did have a couple of nasty instances of intestinal upset even though I was careful about what I ate and drank.

That's because India has more types of hepatitis, viruses (virii?), bacteria, bugs and random sick-making thingies than we have names for, much less can get vaccinations for.   But I'm with you, I take the anti-malarials in any areas with malaria.  Yes, sometimes they can make you feel a little sick, but not sick enough to risk malaria for. 

Ugh, I'm going to Ghana in April (which I'm so excited about!!!) and will have to get anti-malaria pills and several vaccinations I didn't get for El Salvador last year. I'm most afraid of the food/water making me sick

Only work-related shot I've had to get is tetanus, when I got the exacto knife injury.

[Sum Dum Gai]

What's white lung?

[CarolinaKat]

Stupid People. Seriously. Follow safety rules and we all go home in one piece

[Abby Normal]

We are an industrial manufacturing facility. we have chemicals and  heavy equipment that you can caught in/under- add the stupid people factor.  

Just had a guy hurt last week because he "didn't want to take the time" to properly lock out his piece of equipment and reached his "hand in real quick to dislodge" something, lost his balance and hit the trigger button. The equipment slammed down on his arm. One supposed to lock it out, two not supposed to stick body parts in there... ever.  The quotes are his words during the investigation. 

[CarolinaKat]

Feb 10, 2014 16:13:00 GMT -5 Abby Normal said:

We are an industrial manufacturing facility. we have chemicals and  heavy equipment that you can caught in/under- add the stupid people factor.  

Just had a guy hurt last week because he "didn't want to take the time" to properly lock out his piece of equipment and reached his "hand in real quick to dislodge" something, lost his balance and hit the trigger button. The equipment slammed down on his arm. One supposed to lock it out, two not supposed to stick body parts in there... ever.  The quotes are his words during the investigation. 

At least his arm is still attached. Sometimes that isn't the case.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Just had a guy hurt last week because he "didn't want to take the time" to properly lock out his piece of equipment and reached his "hand in real quick to dislodge" something

I know a post-doc (that means 4 years undergrad and 4-6 years graduate work) who blinded himself for two weeks looking directly into a UV light.  Claimed nobody told him not to do that.
 

I also heard about someone who injected himself with West Nile even though he was using a dual lock syringe.  That means he stabbed himself and rather than pull the syringe out pushed the plunger AGAIN thus injecting himself.

So much for dual lock syringes being safer.  Manufacturers didn't count on stupid.