/sci/ - Science & Math

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Anonymous Mon Jul 6 21:19:43 2015 No.7377237 [Reply] [Original]

Have you ever worked in a dangerous lab environment?

I recently quit my position of 6 years because the stress was starting to dig deep. I worked for Wildnil Pharm in Colorado in the compound opioid labs. To give you an example of the work related stress (and the enormous liability), I will tell you about one of the common "rotation" jobs between R&D temp positions:

There are six synthetic PhD's that do scale synthesis (read: up to 100 grams in TOTAL) of carfentanyl. Three of these chemists work at the bench in full PPE and the other three act as safety partners that sit 25 feet away with an quick release antidote dart gun trained at the back of the active synthetic worker. About once every two weeks, a small quantity of the fine powder is pulled up by the walk-in hoods and upon contact with any skin on the synthetic chemist's body, renders them unconscious. The LD50 is 3.4 mg/kg.

Any exposure immediately drops the chemist to the floor and the antidote takes approximately 3 minutes to reach it's IC50. There are mandatory 3 pint draws with triplicate varied-kinase and p450 assays over a 2-week forced "vacation" period. Every single one of my coworkers were terrified of the rotation.

Pic related: it is how I feel now that I can go back to academia and pick up some innocuous post-docs again.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 21:42:28 2015 No.7377272 I worked in a hotlab once. Radioactive Phosphorus or something. Shit's scary as fuck.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 21:44:29 2015 No.7377273 I'm a computer engineer. Worst thing I have to deal with is ESD. Feels gud mon

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 21:51:58 2015 No.7377282 File: 45 KB, 486x392, 1369926758345.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7377237 That sounds pretty badass actually. How well did it pay?

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 22:00:23 2015 No.7377296 2 week paid vacation? Sick, I'm in

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 22:06:42 2015 No.7377308 I didn't realize people manufactured chemicals by hand anymore is there any reason why this isn't being produced in an automated, chemical engineering process?

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 22:14:42 2015 No.7377320 File: 1.33 MB, 392x400, 1435705380816.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7377237 Holy fuck and I was complaining about having to work with benzyl bromide and my eyes hurting and shit How much did you get paid for this misery

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 22:17:25 2015 No.7377329 File: 128 KB, 853x600, 1435367962263.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7377308 >Why don't people just drive their cars on the roads to get where they want? Surely every place has a nice paved road leading to it.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 22:22:26 2015 No.7377346 >>7377237 >carfentanyl >used to subdue ppl in hostage crisis oh jeebus

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 22:26:44 2015 No.7377354 >>7377346 >killed 125 people

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 22:33:37 2015 No.7377372 >>7377354 i was getting there

Anonymous Mon Jul 6 23:11:58 2015 No.7377413

I once worked for a company that made chlorate and derivatives. The whole place was a disaster waiting to happen, but there are two instances I remember in particular.

The first was weird. I came in to work a Saturday shift, and there was a bunch of crap that someone else left crystallized in the fume hood. Chlorate is a pretty strong oxidizing agent... but in the fume hood, that's fine, except that it's annoying to clean up. You use paper towels and have to keep them wet until they can be incinerated. Fine. So I did my tests, did a thorough cleaning, went home, and came back the next week (working shift, so big stretches of time off). When I got back, my boss blamed me for leaving a mess, and said she wasn't going to clean it up, so they left it until I came back. I went to look, and not only had someone again fucked up the fume hood (whoever worked those night shifts, I guess), but a bunch of our coveralls were hanging and all covered in chlorate crystals (and this is how I know it wasn't me). All that shit could have caught fire at any time... and they just left it for a week to teach me some kind of lesson.

The second thing turned out to be serious, and it's why I'm glad I was laid off. There's this large centrifuge, and part of the lab tech's duties are to reach in with a metal scoop and grab a sample. The conversation when I was first shown how to do this went like this:
> "Anon, take this scoop and reach waaay into that hatch. Hold on tight or it'll blow out of your hand and wreck the machine. Someone did that once and caused a lot of damage."
> [I do it.] "Wow, that is hard to hold on to. Why don't we attach a chain to this scoop?"
> [Boss is visibly annoyed] "Just don't drop the scoop."
A couple months after my departure, there was an explosion that blew out all the windows in that building, did something like $15m in damage to equipment, lost them 6 months' production, and somehow did not hurt anyone. Someone dropped the scoop.

Anonymous Mon Jul 6 23:15:16 2015 No.7377420

>>7377413
Also, we did environmental testing for our facility and an adjacent mill. I remember a conversation when I was being shown where the stacks were.
> "You sample from this stack and this stack only. Test only for X, Y, and Z. If we test for other things and find them, or if we test from the other stacks, then we need to report them, and then we'd all be liable."
Seriously, fuck that place.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 23:15:34 2015 No.7377421 >>7377413 >> [Boss is visibly annoyed] "Just don't drop the scoop." Ahahahahahahaha What ethnicity was boss?

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 23:17:15 2015 No.7377427 File: 6 KB, 360x360, 1388808212245.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7377421 >

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 23:20:21 2015 No.7377434 >>7377427 It just sounds like something Italians might say.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 23:21:14 2015 No.7377435 >>7377282 $45/hour with 2 weeks/annum vacation, overtime, and benes for myself and my direct family. Not bad at all. But totally not worth it for the long run. They are really just buying your sanity.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 23:21:46 2015 No.7377437 >>7377434 It is something you would get a lot of strange looks for from a racially diverse crowd

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 23:22:14 2015 No.7377438 >>7377320 Why did you let it get to your eyes you dumb fuck literally everyone has used BnBr....

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 23:23:26 2015 No.7377440 >>7377421 Uh, distant Ukrainian background maybe? I can't remember the last name. Generic white person, I guess.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 23:26:19 2015 No.7377450 >>7377440 Ah not even close :( Serves them right with that explosion though.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 6 23:49:21 2015 No.7377496 I volunteer with lizards and one bit me once. It didn't hurt because it was a very small lizard, it was very cute and I want to keep helping there. Oh they poop on you sometimes too but its ok they do it because they are scared

Anonymous Tue Jul 7 00:06:59 2015 No.7377522

>>7377237
If they're wearing full PPE, this wouldn't even happen. Also there are very easy ways to work around this.

Glove boxes aren't that expensive and on transport out of the glovebox one could wear full PPE (you must not know what full PPE is by the way).

Oh and I doubt OSHA would allow what you're claiming, is this just story time or what?

Anonymous Tue Jul 7 00:22:29 2015 No.7377542
File: 38 KB, 430x304, 1351148261096.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>>7377522
>implying OSHA can't be paid to turn their heads
>implying there aren't cocaine factories right now in the northern US
>implying something 10,000 times stronger than morphine wouldn't be constantly researched

Anonymous Tue Jul 7 00:32:20 2015 No.7377554

>>7377542
Uh I'm not implying any of that. I'm implying this is story time on /sci/.

If you've ever dealt with OSHA or worked in a lab, you would understand the OP's story is laughable at best. The biggest pharma companies in the world get shit on by OSHA all the time and you think some small company is going to pay them off selling fucking animal tranquilizers? You stupid.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 7 00:44:54 2015 No.7377576 >>7377308 Fucking engineers think they know everything.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 7 00:57:28 2015 No.7377589 >>7377434 Yeah, I was thinking it sounded kinda like a movie mob boss

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 7 01:03:18 2015 No.7377596 >>7377354 >Search on duckduckgo >Wikipedia page >"Moscow theater hostage crisis" Didn't even read the rest of the page, lmao. Those crazy Ruskies

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 7 09:12:10 2015 No.7378071 >>7377554 It's like you have no idea what kind of revenues pharma pulls.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 7 09:57:08 2015 No.7378125 >>7377596 130 hostages killed All 40 terrorists killed MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 7 10:01:31 2015 No.7378131 >>7377413 >just dont drop the scoop jesus christ what a fucking shitshow of a company

Anonymous Tue Jul 7 10:02:08 2015 No.7378132

>>7378071
Again, you're comparing big pharma to a small company that makes compounds used for animal tranquilizers. This is not big pharma. They are not pulling in billions of dollars. You are an idiot.

The OP is trying to tell a story, a fake story, and I don't really know why. Maybe to spice up his unfulfilled life?

Again, almost all chemical facilities have gloveboxes. Working on a 100g scale is very easy in a glovebox and prevents any and all exposure to any chemical substance. Even without a glovebox, a solution would be the $5 plastic nitrobags you can use as a makeshift glovebox. I've blown them up in a hood a number of times. Though they're tougher to work in then a dedicated glovebox, they still protect you from exposure.

Next, "full PPE" is basically what most would call a radiation suit or similar. You literally cannot be exposed to any chemical wearing full PPE. And full PPE is also not very expensive.

In total the cost to fix the OP's problem for the company would likely be less then $50k. One workers comp. claim from exposure could run the company upwards of $2mil. A chemist could claim adequate safety measures were not in place and exposure could lead to severe mental disorders and/or death even if an "antidote" is supplied.

Anonymous Tue Jul 7 10:05:02 2015 No.7378145

>>7377554
if it happened in the right time span, OSHA would have been a fucking joke. OSHA got neutered like a stray puppy during the Bush years, inspectors had no real power to get companies in trouble, inspections happened fucking never, and companies were warned every time OSHA was stopping by for an inspection.

besides, whoever said OP is from the US?

Anonymous Tue Jul 7 10:06:29 2015 No.7378148
File: 998 KB, 571x624, ewBUDu6.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>tfw plant biologist
>tfw the most dangerous thing i work with regulary is EtBr and ethanol
>tfw the most dangerous thing i've ever worked with was EMS for a mutagenesis screen
feels good man

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 7 10:07:30 2015 No.7378150 >>7378145 oh, OP himself said he's from the US i'm a dumbfuck, ignore me

Anonymous Tue Jul 7 10:11:20 2015 No.7378158

>>7378145
The OP says they worked at Wildnil Pharm in Colorado... I'm guessing they meant "wildpharm".

And OSHA inspectors always had power over smaller pharma companies, it's what kept them alive back then. The company I worked for was fined $100k for missing paperwork or some shit.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 7 10:57:14 2015 No.7378211 >>7378125 How would you have handled it?

Anonymous Tue Jul 7 12:19:31 2015 No.7378338
File: 15 KB, 211x267, anatoli.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>be workings on glorious particle accelerator of motherland
>particle accelerator was sabotaged by evil capitalist spy
>comrade commissar shout at me to fix
>workings on fix
>suddenly superior soviet technology comes back to life while I am still of fixing machine
>proton beam go through my head
>see light brighter than soviet star over moscow
>finish phd with half a brain left, because why not
Such is life in the motherland.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 7 12:50:15 2015 No.7378404 >>7377237 How much did you earn (pr. month)?

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 7 12:54:43 2015 No.7378410 >>7377237 The only dangerous stuff I deal with is lethal levels of high voltage and mild radiation.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 7 12:55:03 2015 No.7378411 >>7377237 I have to wear PPE to protect my samples instead of the other way around. I consider myself luckier now.

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 7 12:55:24 2015 No.7378413 >>7377413 So.... did you report this company to the authorities for unsafe practices?

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 7 13:42:37 2015 No.7378482 >>7378148 Another plant scientist? Cool! What do you work on, and where are you based?

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 7 14:03:39 2015 No.7378522 >>7378482 north carolina, hormone signaling currently halfway through my phd, doing some pathway/regulatory-network modeling and looking for new shit in a screen

>>	Anonymous Tue Jul 7 14:21:45 2015 No.7378546 >>7378211 Would've reported all 170 deaths were terrorists

Anonymous Tue Jul 7 14:34:14 2015 No.7378582

>>7378132
> full PPE
From a workplace practices standpoint, that simply means whatever PPE is mandated for the job. It could be simple FR clothing, boots, and glasses, or it could be something more. But it doesn't imply that you're wearing a full fire-resistant hazmat suit with self-contained breathing gear and rescue attachment and climbing spikes.

Anonymous Tue Jul 7 22:14:44 2015 No.7379465

>>7378132
>Again, you're comparing big pharma to a small company that makes compounds used for animal tranquilizers. This is not big pharma. They are not pulling in billions of dollars. You are an idiot.

Loving. Every. Laugh.

Never did I say I was working for a small biotech start up that will be gone in 3 years. Read up on horizontal integration; it has nothing to do with math. ;^)

Anonymous Tue Jul 7 22:48:52 2015 No.7379521

>>7378582
If you're talking about extremely dangerous chemicals and say "full PPE", you're talking a hazmat suit.

>>7379465
I'm talking about the company the OP stated they worked for. That is a small company that makes the animal tranquilizers.

The point, since you've missed it, is that big pharma still gets nailed by OSHA, yet the OP seems to suggest a small mom&pop type chemical company can somehow get away with working conditions just as bad as the worst facilities in China. It's not even close to believable.

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 8 00:27:30 2015 No.7379703 >>7377237 WTF OP, are you guys manufacturing Spy Movie sleeping serum?

Anonymous Wed Jul 8 00:59:36 2015 No.7379761

OP here
>>7379703
Yup. It is like being part of a heavily regulated, and not so explosive q-branch.

>>7379521
It isn't a small company. Look at who owns it. Then look at the company's gross or revenue in the early 2000's. Prepare to shit bricks and start saving to start your own chemical company.

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 8 02:49:19 2015 No.7379991 >start saving to start your own chemical company. How much would this cost, theoretically? I'm a chemE and I have a few pharmacist and organic friends.

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 8 08:08:44 2015 No.7380496 >>7379991 >$500,000

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 8 08:11:24 2015 No.7380497 >>7377237 https://www.reddit.com/comments/d7dqs/lets_hear_some_of_your_lab_horror_stories/

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 8 09:04:37 2015 No.7380558 >>7380496 Any reasoning behind that or its just out of thin air?

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 8 09:13:00 2015 No.7380564 >>7380497 fuck off reddit

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 8 09:47:51 2015 No.7380589 >>7379761 It's listed as privately owned by William R Lance, 10-19 employees, ~$7.5mil in yearly revenue. This is the definition of a small mom&pop pharma company. Stop telling fake stories, anon.

Anonymous Wed Jul 8 11:04:04 2015 No.7380669

>>7377237
>Any exposure immediately drops the chemist to the floor
bullshit. intravenous exposure takes several minutes to be effective and intramuscular takes even longer, up to fifteen minutes. transdermal exposure will be much slower, and they'll feel the effects coming on long before they hit their maximum

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 8 11:07:56 2015 No.7380673 >>7380564 school just get out for you?

>>	Anonymous Wed Jul 8 11:24:53 2015 No.7380692 >>7378338 >In 1996 he applied unsuccessfully for disabled status to receive his free epilepsy medication. fuck russia

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 9 02:00:46 2015 No.7382037 >>7377237 Entertaining story. You should write scifi full time. How does it feel to have fooled so many people here?

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 9 09:18:29 2015 No.7382434 >>7377413 This is going into my pasta folder. It's such a crazy story. I'm sorry for you tho' anon.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 9 09:22:37 2015 No.7382441 >>7377522 You're and idiot, despite dubs.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 9 09:27:22 2015 No.7382444 In my first year at uni I worked in a lab full of asbestos tiling and dust. >as a labourer who's job it was to remove them That was a shitty job.

Anonymous Thu Jul 9 09:41:56 2015 No.7382471
File: 13 KB, 430x320, 52c95bde595b7.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>Engineer.
>New post-grads first day/week, I can't remember.
>Some kid is talking shit about how he knows basically everything about everything, spurting memes left right and center.
>In plating lab, having to show them how to plate contacts in gold for cold welding.
>Most of them understand how it's done and why, etc.
>All of a sudden, I see know it all kid finishing off his sandwich.
>'What the fuck are you doing'?
>'Errrrr, I'm hungry'

Now, for all intensive purposes, everyone knows not to fuck about in a lab, especially at work, however, this one particular retard decided to start eating his fucking lunch in a lab where Potassium Cyanide is actively used in a process to plate the contacts.

>Tell kid he's just injected Potassium Cyanide.
>Kid laughs and starts to say 'Whate-'
>Gagging
>Coughing
>Vomiting

Long story short, kid ended up in hospital for about 3 weeks while his body rejected it.

He's fucking lucky to be alive.

Also, Never heard from him since, apart from his parents who tried to sue the company.

>MFW

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 9 09:47:52 2015 No.7382480 File: 7 KB, 194x260, 1428824320617.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7382471 Is this you again OP? Cool story nonetheless.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 9 09:51:09 2015 No.7382484 >>7382480 Not OP, but thanks haha.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 9 10:11:59 2015 No.7382504 >>7382471 there's no way that could have possibly happened short of you deliberately spraying KCN at his food congratulations on your attempted homicide

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 9 10:32:34 2015 No.7382525 >>7382471 its a doggy dog world out there...

Anonymous Thu Jul 9 10:57:57 2015 No.7382555

>Working in radiological lab
>Testing primary coolant from old, shitty 60s reactor
>Doing [classified] assay
>Just finished vacuum filtering off a precipitate
>Put it in the drying oven
>Everything seems normal
>Suddenly, hear a horrible crackle
>Flames burst from the drying oven
>Glove box is full of white smoke
>Cut the power to the oven
>Activate the quench
>Put blanking plates over the gloves

Turns out, some lazy fucker had used the last of the glass filter paper and replaced it with nitrocellulose from the adjacent lab instead of walking down the hall to the supply closet. Since it was a particularly juicy sample taken from just after shutdown the entire glove box had to be slice up and put in barrels. Scary but, in the end, benign. A guy who'd been working basically since the Manhattan Project told me they once lost an entire weapons fabrication lab to a plutonium fire because some dingus designed the glove box with plexiglass windows, which will burn and everything from an incredibly expensive inert gas furnace to lathes had to be sliced up and sent for disposal.

Anonymous Thu Jul 9 14:48:52 2015 No.7382901

People in my first year chemistry practicals gave me an interesting study into the common idiot's perception of the wild wonders of acetone.

By week one, they had been shown that you could write notes on your fume hoods' plexiglass panel with permanent marker and take it off again with a rag and some acetone.

I won't forget the stumped expression on their faces as one of the pillars of their world was taken out from underneath them (permanent marker is permanent, forever). The world they had known, a lie. What other lies from the greedy world of office supplies marketing had they bought into?
(I seriously couldn't get over the amount of people that actually got legitimately mad at me for writing stuff in perm marker on things. Only to watch their stupor when I then immediately cleaned the writing off to appease them)

Anyhow, by the end of the course, two firstyears got bored at the end of a practical and since the supervisor wasn't around, they had used acetone so much they were convinced it was a funny innocuous fast-evaporating windex and started playing 'acetone fight' where they would spray a small amount of acetone onto each others lab coats with spray bottles as if it was water.

Fucking idiots.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 9 18:48:32 2015 No.7383379 >>7382504 >This little experience. why is /sci/ filled with faggy undergrads...

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 9 18:59:32 2015 No.7383400 File: 54 KB, 750x600, Spetsnaz.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7377237 >carfentanyl Cheers, man. I now have some context for pic related. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carfentanil

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 9 19:08:28 2015 No.7383409 >>7383379 if there was enough KCN vapor in the air that it would be dangerous to eat a sandwich, then you should all have been dead from breathing it

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 9 19:09:40 2015 No.7383410 >>7382901 >using acetone to clean up markers what, ethanol too plebian for you?

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 9 19:49:02 2015 No.7383511 >>7383410 Ethanol is less useful for cleaning glassware in organic chemistry laboratories than acetone.

>>	Anonymous Thu Jul 9 19:54:29 2015 No.7383522 >>7383410 Microbio lab monkey detected

Anonymous Fri Jul 10 08:49:01 2015 No.7384476

>>7383522
Thanks for reminding me of a fun tale:

>1st year biochemist
>Non STEM students are allowed to take a science module to broaden their horizons
>Result: all the philosophers take micro
>Result of result: clusterfucks in the micro lab
>Finishing a plate innoculation
>Ham handed philosopher picks up squirt bottle of alcohol
>Accidentally sprays a huge stream of it across the lab
>Passes through Bunsen
>Ignites
>On my fucking hand
>Extinguish hand under the tap
>Left with a patch of skin on the back of my hand that is shiny and hairless
>Tell people I was assaulted by a philosopher when they ask about it

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 10:00:11 2015 No.7384562 File: 15 KB, 292x257, Kek.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7384476

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 10:27:45 2015 No.7384592 >>7383379 Nice try OP. You probably flunked out of your undergrad didn't you? That's why you're spending your time writing imaginary stories instead of doing actual science.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 12:06:32 2015 No.7384718 >>7384592 Projecting. This. Fucking. Hard. On. An. Anonymous. Image. Board.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 12:07:38 2015 No.7384720 >>7380558 Realistically it's going to cost millions. You have to buy the site, buy the equipment, obtain the relevant licenses, hire the workers and buy the raw materials.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 12:11:18 2015 No.7384726 File: 85 KB, 426x341, 4df.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7382555 >plutonium fire

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 12:12:53 2015 No.7384729 >>7383522 topkek, too true

Anonymous Fri Jul 10 12:20:09 2015 No.7384738

>>7384726
I've never worked with it directly in any significant quantity (there is almost inevitably some in fuel element contaminated material from reactors that have gone critical) but it's nightmare stuff. You've got an insane chemical toxicity for an element, the risk of criticality with any significant quantity (including subcritical masses if neutron reflectors are involved) and it spontaneously catches fire or, if it's not quite feeling lively enough, simply sits there slowly oxidizing itself into fine flakes that go everywhere. It's also an incredibly hard metal with multiple allotropes so turning it into a pit is every bit as much of a challenge as symmetrical implosion or producing it in the first place.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 12:25:25 2015 No.7384753 >>7384718 >getting this mad

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 12:29:55 2015 No.7384767 File: 98 KB, 550x211, jp9a3p.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7384753 >projecting this hard >again

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 12:32:17 2015 No.7384769 >>7384738 Don't those guys usually work with it in oxide form for this very reason though? Is there some reason why you MUST work with it as a pure metal?

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 12:33:38 2015 No.7384772 >>7384753 >>7384767 you're both idiots

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 12:34:23 2015 No.7384773 >>7384769 >Is there some reason why you MUST work with it as a pure metal? It was a weapons fabrication lab, pits are always metallic (as far as I'm aware).

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 12:38:36 2015 No.7384778 >>7382555 Was it this? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Flats_Plant I will never ever go to Denver.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 12:41:40 2015 No.7384781 >>7383379 >Uh oh, they're on to me! Better call him an undergrad to restore my credibility

Anonymous Fri Jul 10 12:43:05 2015 No.7384782

>>7384778
He never specified, it's considered poor form to ask for specific names or facilities but that does match the story he told. That site is pretty tame compared to the decades of shit that went on at Hanford. You couldn't pay me enough money to stand outside there and eat some food.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 12:56:57 2015 No.7384796 >>7377237 I work with vials of certain cyanide compounds and other stuff, if I dropped one and it shattered I'd die. I just make sure I don't drop one. I'm a physical chemist and we wear 0 items of PPE in the lab. Save for goggles if the laser is on.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 13:04:19 2015 No.7384812 the only PPE requirements I observe are closed-toe shoes

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 13:17:39 2015 No.7384830 >>7384782 >it's considered poor form to ask for specific names or facilities Damn that's too autistic for me. I don't know how people can stand this shit.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 13:19:36 2015 No.7384832 >>7384830 How is that in any way 'autistic'?

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 13:21:51 2015 No.7384833 >>7384832 It's kinda like how people say "just google it" nowadays when you ask them a question instead of getting a simple answer like people did for thousands of years.

Anonymous Fri Jul 10 13:25:51 2015 No.7384834

>>7384833
I think you misunderstand. He never told me (this is over a decade ago). If someone is talking about a mishap in the industry and doesn't mention who or where then it's bad manners to ask. This allows people to talk about events without worrying about the consequences to individuals.

Anonymous Fri Jul 10 14:25:54 2015 No.7384907

Worked in malware research lab
Was given throwaway vms to make viruses
Dl shit ton of viruses the lab had scrapped up from security firms
Execute a few because why not?
Nothing happens but some guy last his hand in the machine room that week
None of the clocks in the building work anymore

>>	None !!BJiYgff8zf2 Fri Jul 10 15:04:23 2015 No.7384958 >>7384907 >Dl shit ton of viruses the lab had scrapped up from security firms >Execute a few because why not? Smart.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 16:10:12 2015 No.7385040 >>7384830 Refraining from asking something because it's socially unacceptable is literally the opposite of autism.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 16:33:18 2015 No.7385069 >>7384834 >>7385040 Shit I'm sorry, I thought he meant it in another way.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 16:34:48 2015 No.7385072 >>7384907 ...A computer virus lopped a guy's hand off?

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 16:35:19 2015 No.7385073 File: 21 KB, 2000x1000, Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7383400 USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 16:37:16 2015 No.7385075 File: 21 KB, 522x322, tsar-bomba-nuclear-weapon-comparison-chart.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7385073 USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR USSR

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 17:47:25 2015 No.7385163 >>7385069 No problem, I thought there was more of a misunderstanding than obtuseness.

Anonymous Fri Jul 10 18:35:56 2015 No.7385218
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>>7377237
I'm working with a several-terawatt femtosecond laser that ionizes the column of air it passes through and will vaporize everything from skin to steel. Right now I'm investigating how the plasma column reacts to external magnetic fields while carrying a current (like Faraday's parallel conducting wire experiment but where one of the "wires" is a laser plasma filament). It's been especially stressful trying to anticipate how the beam's path reacts to the magnetic fields, because underestimating a deviation could mean missing the beam stop and burning a hole in the wall (or somebody else's experiment).

But holy hell OP, that's the most nerve-wracking occupation that I've ever heard of. Fucking kudos to you for waking up and doing that shit on the Daily.

Anonymous Fri Jul 10 19:28:33 2015 No.7385280

>>7385218
>But holy hell OP, that's the most nerve-wracking occupation that I've ever heard of.

There's a small section on novichok agents in Hoffman's Dead Hand, these were powdered nerve agents designed to defeat NATO respirators and antidotes. The problem was, that they were also pretty effective against the defences the Soviet scientists had, one of the scientists allegedly spent 18 days in intensive care and was left a shell of his former self even after being given the antidote.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 23:19:01 2015 No.7385576 >>7384476 alcohol burns but not hands retard. Haven't you ever soaked a dollar and burned it?!

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 23:20:03 2015 No.7385578 >>7384726 9/10 i got pissed literally only a chemist would know that plutonium fires are a serious hazard and would know to troll with it. fuck you. good bait

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 23:28:22 2015 No.7385589 Daily reminders: >USE ALL THE GLOVES YOU WANT, YOU'RE NOT PAYING FOR THEM >SAME FOR GOWNS, BOOTIES, SHIELDS

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 23:30:51 2015 No.7385597 >>7385589 >ever using shields kek fucking pusses palladium aint gonna boom

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 23:56:12 2015 No.7385656 >>7380589 >This is the definition of a small mom&pop pharma company. god damn you're fucking retarded. there's no such thing as a "mom&pop" pharmacy company holy shit.

>>	Anonymous Fri Jul 10 23:57:20 2015 No.7385658 >>7385656 WHY CAN'T WE BE NICE TO EACH OTHER

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 11 00:07:49 2015 No.7385677 >>7385658 because retards have to learn their place in the world.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 11 00:22:51 2015 No.7385709 >>7385677 We are a relatively small community of scientifically-oriented, bright young people. Think of what we could accomplish together.

Anonymous Sat Jul 11 00:25:28 2015 No.7385713

>>7377434
I was really confused as to why you would say it sounded like an italian thing until I read this guy's post.
>>7377589
While I did lol, I hope you realize that Italians aren't at all like movie mob bosses.

In my head I just pictured a generic white guy, but like an uptight cheap hardass.

Anonymous Sat Jul 11 00:37:06 2015 No.7385721

>>7385656
Are you autistic? Serious question.

Mom&pop is clearly being used in a derogatory fashion to imply that the company is small and not significant enough to actually skirt rules in place that other larger multi-billion dollar pharma companies can.

The OP's story is obviously fictitious anyways, not sure why you're so mad.

Anonymous Sat Jul 11 01:43:07 2015 No.7385794

>any exposure instantly drops the chemist to the floor
Fucking lol. Fentanyl and its analogues take way longer than "instantly" to affect you transdermally. If you actually got like 20 mcg of carfentanil on your skin you would be high as shit an hour later. If you OD'd transdermally you would gradually have more and more trouble breathing, like any opioid overdose.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 11 05:31:01 2015 No.7386025 >>7385576 That's a mix of alcohol and water and rag paper is rather more heat resistant than skin. I was almost tempted not to correct you and let you lose your money.

Anonymous Sat Jul 11 11:20:28 2015 No.7386341

>>7377237
I have made Chem labs dangerous for myself throughout uni so far. One time i miss read 2ml as 20ml and purple smoke started to fuck my shit up (quite explosive apparently so had to keep it in a nice ice bath). Another time i got home from a lab and some substance had gotten below my coat and was bubbling my skin a nice yellow colour. Balanced it out with some water so couldnt have been anything too serious. Ive started to pay more attention in my labs now, i come from an all arts background in highschool so i was pretty new to proper lab etiquette.

Anonymous Sat Jul 11 14:53:29 2015 No.7386692

I work in a central specimen diagnostics lab in a huge inner city hospital.

Dangerous thing I have to work with is hand transfers of some bodily fluids, many of which are inner city niggers that rest positive for HIV, Hep A, B and C, and whatever else the fuck is out there.

I was still an UG when this happened, but apparently the reason why my boss got her job was because the previous boss authorized an intern to do a risky transfer and gave HIV+ blood back to a, HIV- pregnant mother and HIV- blood back to an HIV+ heroin addict.

Fuck m8.

Anonymous Sat Jul 11 15:08:29 2015 No.7386713

I work in a place with a biolab. The guy who does purification and packaing and stuff told me no one told him what sodium azide was when he started and used to use all the time with no PPE, at all. Can he sue them pretty easily? He absolutely will, and idgaf our company is at the heart of what's wrong with the biotech industry. We mislabed or make stuff wrong and when scientists call them to complain it's easy enough to just come up with someway to blame them.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 11 15:14:19 2015 No.7386718 >>7386713 we aren't pharma by the way, just r&d

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 11 15:16:04 2015 No.7386722 >>7379465 no one believes you, faggot. like someone said a company would just use a glovebox for that not you're stupid ass fucking lombardo set up.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 11 15:24:37 2015 No.7386741 >>7385589 try working for a small company anon!

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 11 15:35:03 2015 No.7386751 >>7385709 If looking at /g/ is any measure, we couldn't decide for the name of our paper and we'd end up not writing it at all.

Anonymous Sat Jul 11 17:08:13 2015 No.7386843

>plant biology
one way to sterilize seeds is to mix bleach and conc. hcl in a beaker and put vials of seeds and the gas in a closed container for a couple hours

i fucked up and poured too much hcl too quickly into my bleach so like 80 mLs of bleach all started rapidly evolving chlorine gas all at once and foamed out of the beaker all over the inside of the hood

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 11 20:28:03 2015 No.7387080 >tfw math major >tfw the most dangerous thing in the lab is an insane professor

Anonymous Sat Jul 11 21:13:47 2015 No.7387135

>>7377413
>The second thing turned out to be serious, and it's why I'm glad I was laid off. There's this large centrifuge, and part of the lab tech's duties are to reach in with a metal scoop and grab a sample. The conversation when I was first shown how to do this went like this:
>> "Anon, take this scoop and reach waaay into that hatch. Hold on tight or it'll blow out of your hand and wreck the machine. Someone did that once and caused a lot of damage."
>> [I do it.] "Wow, that is hard to hold on to. Why don't we attach a chain to this scoop?"
>> [Boss is visibly annoyed] "Just don't drop the scoop."
>A couple months after my departure, there was an explosion that blew out all the windows in that building, did something like $15m in damage to equipment, lost them 6 months' production, and somehow did not hurt anyone. Someone dropped the scoop.

...and thats why i hate the place, thanks anon i thought god was angry with me or something.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 11 21:45:24 2015 No.7387163 >>7377237 Almost took a BSL4 job. Otherwise the most dangerous thing I've done is made some viruses. Oh and Osmium Tetroxide and uranyl acetate I guess.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 11 22:07:11 2015 No.7387181 >>7379521 >If you're talking about extremely dangerous chemicals and say "full PPE", you're talking a hazmat suit. Not necessarily. I work in hazmat and rarely see class A ppe

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 11 22:20:29 2015 No.7387195 >>7385072 they're pretty sophisticated nowadays

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