Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2003 00:02:27 -0700 From: Joanne MyersSubject: Re: [DCHAS-L] safety and nomenclature I ran into a situation as an Industrial Hygienist working as a consultant with an insurance company. A policyholder was engaged in electroplating. One step involved pickling the substrate metal with hydrochloric acid. The next step involved neutralizing excess acid with sodium hydroxide before moving the substrate metal to the cyanide bath for plating. This is pretty routine for electroplating. But one day, the shop filled with chlorine gas during the neutralizing step. The problem was that the drum labelled sodium hydroxide (50% solution) actually contained sodium hypochlorite solution. This drum had been obtained from a reputable supplier, and the supplier accepted responsibility for the error in labelling. Fortunately, the shop was pretty well ventilated and personnel were evacuated promptly. There were no serious injuries. I recommended to the policyholder that a pilot mix be done whenever a new drum was started. There is no way to be sure that a similar error could not happen again. Better to find out on a small scale than a large scale. Joanne Myers, CIH BSK Associates Fresno, CA
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