Dalmatiangirl:
I am hardly "Safety Sally". I made thus far to 68 years of age, and I started working as a kid at a time when little was made known of the dangers of various substances. I worked briefly in one plant, doing some maintenance work. They had a large vat of trichlorethylene solvent that metal stampings were dunked into on a conveyor line prior to getting dunked in a vat of hot enamel. I worked under the trichlor tank on some maintenance work. After 2 weeks in that hell hole, I quit. I worked in machine shops in the 1960's where all manner of flood coolant was used. I would clean up at day's end, change clothes, and get on the NYC Subways to go home. As I perspired (not A/C on the subways back then), it seemed like the coolant was leaching out of my skin. As a young engineer on powerplant jobs, we walked the open steel- no fall protection. I used to ride the "overhaul ball" on the whip lines of the cranes to get up and down from the high steel of powerplant boiler houses. No hearing protection either. As I got into startup and erecting work, I'd listen with a flashlight or screwdriver as a stethescope against bearing housings and gearcases. The result is a case of tinnitus with a significant hearing loss.
It was in those years that a statistic was used as a kind of metric on heavy construction projects: for every so many millions of dollars spent on the project, one jobsite fatality could be expected. I saw one 19 year old boilermaker apprentice come crashing down off the high steel, landing near where I was walking, and start dying before my eyes. Today's fall protection gear would have saved his life. I was on jobs where men were killed and the siren would blow and we'd all walk out the gate - no working after a fatality for the rest of the day it occurred.
I used to go into what, today, would be classified as a "Confined Space, Permit Required" with no lifeline, no air monitoring, and do inspections or supervise a crew. Even after we got into using extraction equipment (harness plus lifeline on a retrieval winch), and into using air monitoring equipment (on the older hydro turbines, the decomposition of zebra mussels produced a combination of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and methane, and the air itself was often low in oxygen content), I'd always be first in ahead of the crew. Water up to my crotch (wearing waders) from leaks in the big bulkhead gates, walls squirming with zebra mussels, down 30 feet of ladder rungs in what amounted to a 36" diameter access way... I'd get on a Motorola walky-talky and direct the crew to dump coal cinders against the upstream faces of the bulkhead gates to seal off the leakage. When the leaks were pretty well sealed off, I'd give the word to enter. I was always "first in" ahead of the crew, as a matter of principal. I'd hand my wallet to one mechanic, and the usual joking about the moths in it seeing daylight were made. I'd tell them if anything happened to me, split the money and give the credit cards and license to my wife. I'd take out my Hamilton railroad pocket watch and give it to another mechanic who remains a bro of mine into retirment- telling him to hold it for me and give it to my son if anything happened to me. More joking followed, but the crew would clip on my lifeline and I'd have three air monitoring devices hanging off me along with the Motorola radio, harness, and all else and first have to cram myself into the manway and start the climb down. Even the ladder rungs were alive with zebra mussels when we'd open the older hydro turbines. Mussels would be crunching as I stepped on the ladder rungs, and it was some slippery.
The scream of large air grinders, the racket of air chipping guns, grinding dust, weld smoke, smoke from arc gouging... it all took a toll on me over the past 45 years.
In 1976 on a powerplant job, I was exposed to boiler flue gas on a coal fired plant where we were modifying the flue gas ducting. I had a common cold at the time. A little bit of flue gas and I had a case of industrial pneumonia- unable to catch my breath and coughing up blood by that evening. I believe it compromised my lungs to some extent. Add exposure to lube oil mists during hydro turbine thrust bearing work, along with weld smoke as a Certified Welding Inspector (aside from my own welding), and a cold used to turn into bronchitis almost every time. Plenty of fresh air and doing Pilates to expand and open my chest has- thankfully- made a new man out of me.
I could go on, but suffice it to say that seeing people I worked with die young from cancers and having other occupational illnesses. Call me "Safety Sally", but I want to live in reasonable health to old age. My grandmother made it to 102 in her own apartment to the end, Mom died last November at 100 and was driving into her 99th year and using her computer to within a couple of weeks of her death. Dad, on the other hand, developed cancer of the prostate at age 67 and went out hard with cancer metastasized thru his bones at age 70. I get regular checkups, take precautions, and do the best I can to take care of myself.
You can call me "safety Sally" but I know what the cumulative effects of various jobsite or working conditions can do to a person. We only get one body and it is often impossible to repair or reverse damage done to it. When we are young, let alone the times I lived and worked in being a lot different back then, we tend to dismiss the ideas of safety precautions. Read the "fine print" on a can of carb cleaner or brake parts cleaner. The stuff is highly toxic. A point to also remember is that brake parts cleaner and contact cleaner (and probably a few more commonly-used products) have the ability to produce phosgene gas when TIG welding is done around them. Even the residue from these products, when used to clean and degrease work, will produce phosgene gas when TIG welding is done on those surfaces. People have been disabled for life as a result of this, "on the tank" (oxygen) and chronic emphysema or COPD, nervous system damage, kidneys compromised...
Another example was the night I met two deer while riding home from the plant on my Harley. I was wearing steel cap work shoes, Vanson leather chaps and a Langlitz leather jacket and good gloves. People used to kid me about the leathers. I missed the first deer clean, but the second deer hooked around and I had her head and neck very nearly in my face. She apparently tee boned the Hog and set me into a violent broadslide. I knew the Hog was going to lay down, and actually knew I'd be safe since I was not violently tumbling or ejected off the bike. Sure enough the Hog did lay down and I slid with it on the pavement for what seemed a long while. I realized the Hog was following the crown of the road and would soon wedge under the guide rail, so separated myself from it. I then slid on the pavement like a guy sliding into home plate. I kept my head up and when I stopped sliding, checked myself for injuries and found none. I got up off the pavement and hefted the Harley out and up from where it had come to rest along the guide rail. I had no road rash, very minor bruising and one small bone broken in my left hand where the ring finger had been pushed back (leaving me with a permanent busted knuckle but 100% use of the finger). I was in to work one day later after seeing a doctor about the finger. Still riding motorcycles. My leathers looked like someone ran an angle grinder over them, and my gloves were abraded down to where the insulating material was hanging out. My steel cap boots were ground to the point the steel toe caps were ground on the pavement.
People who had ragged me about putting on chaps and a heavy leather jacket on warm days stopped their ragging after that accident. Langlitz put two new sleeves on my jacket- an old friend who had saved my own hide, which I wear to this day when riding. I attribute my coming thru that accident as well as I did to being in good physical shape and wearing good riding gear- same as safety equipment on a job. I also attribute it to some High Power who, as I told the deputy sheriff who happened along the road that night, was "steering for me". We had a young lady at the powerplant with a great pair of nice long legs. She used to ask me why I wore leathers when riding to and from the plant. One Monday she did not come into work, and by Wednesday, appeared on crutches with her legs in bandages. Seems she was packing behind her boyfriend on a motorcycle, and they were wearing light clothing when they wiped out on gravel. An ER doctor spent a good while picking that gravel and road dirt out of that girl's legs. She never said another word to me about my wearing leather when I'd ride to and from work.
My attitude and working practices come as a result of over 50 years in machine shops and powerplant construction projects and running powerplants. I paid my dues. Seen enough and experienced enough to wise up in my old age. Call me what you will, but I hope to stick around awhile and be in a reasonable enough condition to enjoy what time I have left in this life- God Willing. Never take your health for granted and try to preserve it !
