Zombie Dogs… Your dog wants brains…
Is this Safar Centre run by the Umbrella Corporation?
Posted by Patrick Chester
07/12/2006 at 08:13 PM
There are a host of potential accidents in the construction industry where this kind of technology would be a blessing.
I’m currently running a water treatment plant job in eastern Colorado. There have been two fatal excavation accidents within a fifteen mile radius of my job where this tech would have fit the bill.
I need to explain a couple of things first. I recieved my excavation safety training through NUCA (National Utility Contractors Association). According to them, excavation/confined space accidents are fairly small part of the labor related fatality total. If you think about the accidents that could kill you, fall accidents are the big one. Every trade uses ladders and scaffold, from the guy laying pipe in a hole to get out of a trench to an electrician hanging lights, including your secretary using a step stool to change a light bulb. Tens of thousands of people take a digger off of an elevated surface every year. Out of those tens of thousands a certain small percentage meet their maker. The kicker is that there are so many fall accidents that even though not many people per capita die from them, it is still big enough to make it the number one accident killer.
Now then, not many confined space or excavation accidents happen, but if they do, your chances of getting killed are about 40% to 50%. Think about it. You enter a manhole with a oxygen deficient atmosphere. Your doing your work, become faint, passout, and by the time someone realizes your in trouble, it is to damn late. Excavation accidents; your in a ten foot deep hole. A part of the trench breaks off, say six foot long by three foot deep by three foot wide, which really isn’t all that big. Soil in an undisturbed state can weigh from 95lbs to 115lbs per cubic foot, depending on the soil conditions. 6’x3’x3’= 54cf, at 100lbs/cf thats 5400lbs hitting your ass at the rate of gravity which is 32ft/sec if I remember my physics correctly. That is a couple of half ton pick-up trucks. Now here is the kicker. Your six feet tall, that three foot tall chunck of dirt is going to nock you on your back and bury you to your neck. NUCA claims that 40% of the people that die in excavation accidents die with their head above the dirt. The weight of the dirt around your chest sufficates you. By the time your fellow workers get enough dirt dug away from you that you can breath, your five minutes are up and your gone or brain dead.
Now then, with this kind of technology, if they could make a feasible field application, where you could extend the rescue time from five minutes to two hours, why bring it on and screw PETA!Looks like the Democrats have found a new voting base.
The animal rights folks sometimes have legitimate complaints ..... this is not one of those times. Tell the PETA folks to put a sock in it!
Having worked as a paramedic and a volunteer fireman for years, this type of thing is something that could prove very useful in the field. I do forsee some problems, though. This would not be something that a “First Responder” would be qualified to accomplish. The info provided about the animal tests doesn’t state how long between the “injury” and the beginning of treatment. I would be interested in seeing the numbers on that. My guess is that they knocked the animals out and then did the infusions while saving the blood. Did they save the blood before the procedure?
“Slips, trips, and falls,” is usually the #1 category on industrial accidents. Confined space accidents are actually more common in the oil patch and marine environment. Combine the 2 of them and it even gets worse due to chemicals involved or lack of atmosphere. If I remember the last time I looked at the MMS pages (Minerals Management Service) and the Coast Guard, I think the rate was about the same as in the excavation industry.
Anyway, so far it just looks like if you are a dog, you have a chance ..... if you are a human, you are going to have to wait for a while....
