[AT] smoking/gas bottles

[Mike Sloane]

Chris is right about propane not being all the much of a problem in open 
air, and (very fortunately for thousands of smokers) a burning cigarette 
isn't hot enough to ignite most petroleum products' fumes. Incidentally, 
that pungent smell of natural or bottled gas comes from stuff that the 
producers add to the product - the gas itself has no strong odor 
otherwise. (A few years ago, a bottle of the stuff at a local utility 
company headquarters broke and the smell got into the HVAC system. They 
ended up evacuating 6 square blocks in the middle of downtown before 
they found out what the problem was!)

Still, it is obviously unwise to have any kind of open flame in the 
vicinity of flammable liquids and gas. In another incident, a guy was 
cutting up an old tank with an oxy-acetylene torch and blew himself 
right through a brick wall when the residue of whatever had been in the 
tank exploded.

Mike

Chris Britton wrote:
>> From: DAVIESW739 at aol.com
>> Subject: Re: [AT] Re: how  NOT to adjust your baler
>> I saw a kid smoking today while leaning up against a  cage full of 
>> propane
>> bottles full and otherwise I guess. I ask him if he got his  IQ out of
>> Crackerjacks box. then I looked at my sor hand and I new just how he  
>> felt.
> 
> 
> While we all try to avoid doing those 'life limiting' moves.. I think 
> the guy leaning up against the gas bottles was a tad safer than reaching 
> into a moving bailer.  Gas and air mix has to be at a certain level 
> before explosion.  with the addition of stench.. you will (should) know 
> when it's getting unsafe.
> 
> We run into alot of gas issues doing underground utilities.  Working in 
> a trench poses extra hazards witht he gas pooling, than working on flat 
> open ground.
> 
> Still.. it just doesn't look good anyway.. and I'm sure an osha 
> inspector would faint seeing a guy smoking next to gas equipment... 
> makes ya wonder what they are teaching kids in school these days... sure 
> isn't common sense.
> 
> 
> Soundguy


-- 
Mike Sloane
Allamuchy NJ
mikesloane at verizon.net
Images: <www.fotki.com/mikesloane>

  "The important thing is not to stop questioning"
            Albert Einstein (1879-1955), US (German-born) physicist


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