Put it all together, and have you got ?!?

Some people who don’t know me very well have said that I am a negative person.  I have to disagree with this.  First of all, I have depression, so when I am negative, it is not fair to say that it is an overall description of who I am as a person.  Secondly, I consider myself to be a very realistic person with a very active imagination.

For example, when I see something that can be potentially unsafe, my mind starts to think “worst case scenario” but not in the way you might think.  I do not panic and run away, I simply observe my surroundings and think of ways that I could deal with things if an accident were to occur.  The key to being able to deal with all sorts of situations is to have information about all sorts of things. 

When I drive along the road to and from work I see a lot of trucks and big rigs.  Most of these trucks are not carrying anything extra special, but there are some that transport dangerous goods.  In order to keep people informed, a system has been set in place.   In this system any vehicle that transports dangerous goods has to clearly display the identification numbers of the substance they are carrying.  Each dangerous material is assigned a four-digit number according to its chemical properties and what effects it would have if it were spilled etc.  I am familiar with some of these numbers, such as …… for gasoline, and ………….. for diesel, but there are some numbers that I have seen which I did not recognize at all.

I started to wonder what was in all these trucks, and more specifically, what would happen if two of these trucks were to collide into each other, expelling their contents into traffic.  I know this sounds crazy, but anything CAN happen.  As a First Aid Attendant, I always want to be prepared to help anyone in any situation that requires medical attention, so I decided that it would be good for me to know some of these ID numbers and what sorts of procedures I would need to do to help anyone who is exposed to them.

I took a few days in a row and wrote down the ID numbers for all of the dangerous goods transports trucks that I saw on the road between my home and work.  I was surprised to see some things.  Given the tendency of the public to overreact, I think it is very prudent of our government NOT to display the names of the dangerous goods on the trucks.

Here are some of the ID numbers I came across:
Class 2 = Oxidizing material (burns when combined with oxygen)
1789 = Hydrochloric Acid (corrosive, burns)
1202 = Gasoline, petroleum, oil. (Flammable, accelerant)
3257 = Hot asphalt (burns)
2582 = Liquid Ferric Chloride (corrosive)
Oxygen (no number is designated) in conjunction with oxidizing materials … FIRE!

When I saw these, I pictured a few things: chemical burns, and lots of fire which is only made more intense with the addition of oxidizing materials, oxygen and accelerants.

Check HERE for a full list of all of the dangerous goods and their associated numbers.

I know this may seem a bit random in comparison to some of my other posts, but never the less, 

Thanks for "listening."