Comment on Sweatshop
LillyPip@lemmy.ca 3 weeks agoThat’s great advice, thanks. Also, thank You for doing what’s a mostly thankless job that keeps people safe. You’re in an industry that’s mostly invisible but that’s vitally important, and you probably don’t hear that.
I appreciate what you do.
SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Awww, thanks! I’ve worked in some dangerous industries, which tends to make employees very grateful that I’m actively working to keep their bones undissolved (not exaggerating), so I luckily get a lot of love in between the safety cop jokes. Plus if they’re nice to me I’ll show them where they won’t get caught napping.
LillyPip@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
😳
Uh… story time? Or not.
SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Talking story is my favorite part of EHS! I’ve spent a lot of time working in the semiconductor industry. It uses some terrible chemicals, one of which is hydrofluoric acid, HF. HF is awful. Exposure to moderate amounts usually doesn’t do anything. Not immediately. Without treatment, a very painful burn will appear about 24-36 hours later, as if by magic, due to liquefaction necrosis: it dissolves your tissue into a jelly. Small burns just hurt a lot, big burns can result in abscesses.
It has a very high affinity for calcium, so a single large exposure can result in cardiac arrest due to it binding the calcium in your blood. Chronic exposure to low levels can lead to it leeching the calcium out of your bones, resulting in bones collapsing or simply dying. This is very painful.
Despite it being scary, it’s dead simple to work with: don’t get it on your skin. If you do, wash it off, slather on a calcium gel, and it’ll likely be like nothing happened.
LillyPip@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
So, these are things that have actually happened, since we know that’s a thing. Good lord.
I’m not afraid of many things, but that sounds horrific. Have people lived through that? I kinda hope not.
These sorts of things are why regulations are written in blood, right?