Early on, the company ran out of full radiation suits, forcing workers to create improvised versions of items such as nylon booties they were supposed to pull over their shoes.
"But we only put something like plastic garbage bags you can buy at a convenience store and sealed them with masking tape," he said.
Masking tape? You'd think they could find duct tape somewhere.
He said the tsunami littered the area around the plant with dead fish and sharks, and that the quake opened holes in the ground that tripped up some workers who could not see through large gas masks. They had to yell at one another to be heard through the masks.
Sounds like they are using the wrong full-face respirators. The angle of view in anything I've worn is 120 degrees and I've worn just about every brand made. Never tripped unless it was very dark and didn't have a flashlight.
What they don't know how to speak full-face? That's our language in the haz mat trade. If it's too noisy then we use hand signals.
"It's hard to move while wearing a gas mask," he said. "While working, the gas mask came off several times. Maybe I must have inhaled much radiation."
Hard to move? Not if you know what you're doing and I've been in some tight places. As for the mask coming off then he didn't have the straps tight enough. In really dangerous situations we cinch them down pretty well. It will give you a headache but you'll still be around to talk about it.
What are these guys amateurs?
We're doomed!
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As a fellow hazmat/first responder, Joe just shook his head and pointed to his apparatus and equipment that I insisted on bringing to Florida with us, and arranging (some of it) on a wall in the den. None of it ever failed him...then again, he was never in a position where a garbage bag and tape was handed to him.
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