Bad lithium experience

[astra_nomer]

Thanks to some extreme foolhardiness involving lithium and a water bottle, my building was evacauted this afternoon. A small fleet of emergency vehicles pulled up (including a van labelled "special operations") and a number of firefighters wearing oxygen tanks and masks went in and out of the building. After being told that it would be "a while" before we'd be let back in, I decided to cut my losses and headed home, picking up DS1 en route. I wish I had been as clever as a couple of other people I saw, who had grabbed their laptops on their way out. At least I had my car keys. Lots of people had left purses, keys, backpacks, etc. in their offices and were unable to do much of anything.

I had fully intended to come home and try to get some more work done, but I ended up playing "baseball" with DS1. Ah well.

Comments

[rjpb.livejournal.com]

Hmm, here I thought lithium in one's drinking water tended to make people happy.... What exactly happened?

[astra-nomer.livejournal.com]

Well, it wasn't quite a sodium drop, but it did involve improper containment of a violent reaction and burnt linoleum. Really, it was all over by the time the fire alarm went off, but the Authorities are really upset and are coming down pretty hard on the labs here. OSHA inspections and everything.

Glad I'm an astrophysicist and don't have anything requiring MSDS sheets in my office. It looks like people will be here over the weekend getting everything in order...

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

You know, anything that starts the way this post starts can't possibly be good.

[astra-nomer.livejournal.com]

There are some pretty serious repercussions. The lab is getting fined, and inspections will be happening on Monday to make sure every chemical in every lab is labelled.

I don't know if this guy is going to get fired, but he's definitely in hot water with his supervisors. I just hope for his sake that he isn't in trouble with government-types, since he's not a US citizen and they could deport him or worse if they felt like it.