Tankers the Schneider way

Penske tank shop in West Chester, PA, experienced guy jumps into a Liquid Molten Sulfur tanker, he drops and another guy who tried to get him out died too. failed to follow procedure and checked out the job before bringing it inside where safeguards were present. Happens all too often.

 

Saw a guy unloading Phenol without his suit on once. Talk about not smart. Luckily for him nothing happened, but if a hose had ruptured he would have had burns and cyanosis setting in before we could get him to a safety shower.

 

i saw an older man, who had been a chemical leaman driver many years ago. the majority of his face was scar tissue. horrible looking. i think one eye was gone also. i dont know all the details other than he got hit with acid. (late 1960's-early 70's)

 

Yuck, all of you chemical tanker drivers can keep it. I'm just glad the worst thing that happens in my job is you get covered in well flowback and it wont kill you or deform you...yikes.

 

One of our drivers saved 2 tankwash workers lives last year . One guy went down in the tank . Another worker wanted to go in and help . Our driver held him back and dropped an air hose close to the guy in the tank and called 911 . The guy in the tank recovered .
According to OSHA regulations there must always be a hole watch for persons entering a confined space . The hole watch should never enter the space . His job is to prevent unauthorized entry and call for help when needed . Workers in a confined space should wear a harness so they can be pulled out .
It is a violation for anyone to enter a confined space that has not had confined space training and training is also required in the use of harnesses .

 

Nomex is not a "chemical resistant" PPE. All Nomex or any other brand of FRC (Fire Resistant Clothing) does is provide you the ability to escape from a flash fire. If splashed with a hydrocarbon, Nomex will burn just as fast as cotton, and hotter than polymer. No FRC is intended to do anything more than provide escape from fire.

I have been wearing Nomex since 1979. Long before Schneider took up the practice. Long before most of the refineries and chemical plants took up the practice. I have a friend whom escaped an explosion when a drilling rig (drilling WITH natural gas no less) in the Farmington New Mexico area exploded into flames (1985). Andy was wearing his Nomex, knew that it would not protect him from the worst of the flames, yet went back into the fire 4 times to pull rig-hands off of the drilling floor. For his effort Andy received third degree burns to his face, neck, arms and hands (his gloves burned off). He received second degree burns to his body, which was protected by the Nomex cover-alls he wore. 3 of the four men he pulled from the fire survived.

As for wearing the Chemical Suit?

Thanks but no thanks. Unloading the chemicals....especially the nastiest chemicals.....is the responsibility of the plant. That is why the operators make the "big bucks".
You will sooner or later learn that.

And when it comes to working hard to get the load on or off?? Fuggedaboudut!! The longer the wait to get loaded or unloaded at a plant, the more money I made. "No rush....I have several movies to watch and half a dozen good books to read".......or......"Wake me up when it is time for me to leave". That has been my MOTO for years. Pay me enough and I might give consideration to working hard.

As for my TWIC card, I typically use it two times a day, five days a week.

 

Goes to show your youth and inexperience.


I guess I am just to much of a "Dinosaur".

 

i was in/out of the port avg. 4 times a day going to different fuel terminals, for a year and a half, never asked for the twic. here, in
addition to twic, also was required port ID ($50). that is what they checked.

 

I was drafted to deliver a load into a plant on strike, riding in with a 'driver' provided by some service. The product was a fuming acid [Chlorosulfonic Acid] and water reactive.

It was 95 degrees and high humidity and he questioned why I was suiting up along with the receiver. He went on to describe the previous delivery of sulfuric where the guy didn't wear anything.

This customer pumped the product off and always left a small amount betwen the flanges. I knew what to expect by the small 'dish' eaten out of the concrete under the flange. I unhooked one bottom bolt and loosened two more bolts and held my breath while I jerked the hose to break the seal. The driver was standing nearby.

I waited while the small amount [shotglass full?] caused a small cloud that quickly dissapated. I looked around and my driver was clearing the top step to the loading dock two blocks away...

He never questioned the PPE again.

I also saw the lawsuit where a nomex clad refinery employee was sprayed by sulfuric when a hose split. His company only required him to wear a chem resistant jacket and face shield/goggles.

The acid knocked off his hard hat and sprayed down the back of his neck. The goggles saved his eyes. He needed skin grafts on his scalp, neck and butt 'cause the acid ran down the jacket and ate the butt out of his nomex.