A real life scenario of hazardous material causing significant harm would be in 2004 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where a serious lab safety breach took place. The hazard involved the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, which causes anthrax, a highly infectious and potentially deadly disease. The hazardous situation happened when samples thought to be inactivated were mistakenly transferred from a high-containment lab to another lab that didn’t have the same safety precautions. Because the inactivation process wasn’t properly verified, several CDC employees were unknowingly exposed to live anthrax spores while handling the samples.
During my time as a co-op at GAF, I have witnessed a variety of hazards that had to be mitigated, mostly within the R&D labs. Each of the labs had a variety of equipment with varying levels of risk. One notable case included a leak originating from one of the watershed testing chambers in the environmental lab. For context, this machine was used to see how much a set of roof tiles or shingles would block water from penetrating through to the roof.
The water originating from the machine was gradually spreading around the floor, which included the walking areas of the lab. Alarm arose when lab champions (the technicians designated for each lab) noticed the existing drains were insufficient (i.e., too far or too small). Because of this, employees needing to walk through the labs to get around the facility were having a difficult time avoiding the water. Worse yet, some needed to transport certain delicate, large equipment through this specific area due to a lack of space in the main hallways.
With this in mind, the hazard involves water. The hazardous situation involved the water on the floor posing a slippage risk as a result of the water hazard originating from the runoff tester, as well as potential equipment damage/failure. The effects of harm would include physical injury to employees, as well as potential (expensive) equipment damage if they were carrying/transporting cargo during that time.
