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Hey yalls,
I've been tied up a while. But anyways, I'm here again.
I got a new job, right. It's industrial instead of food service. BUT, what I do specifically is still a service industry. I have taken my training and made quite a few accomplishments and now, one year later...(Get this, I bet NO ONE on this forum has this job...) I am a bona fide X-Ray technician!
Now, I know what you're gonna say. "Mary over here is an X-Ray Tech over at St. Mary's Hospital!" Well close, and sure you deal with customers of the absolute WORST kind.... Patients!
But no, I don't work in any Hospital. EEEW! Sick people make me sick.
I get to wear a hardhat and safety glasses. I do work almost anywhere, but mostly in plants, refineries, fabrication shops, pipelines, etc...
I go in and shoot x-rays on pipe welds to see if they're sound so they don't blow up tomorrow or 10 years from now. The company I work for subcontracts out to customers who are doing work for these places and need x-rays done. Normally I go in, make my introductions and have the QC guy show me where the welds are. Then I break out my equipment and get to work.
Now, I'm playing with some serious stuff here. I don't get to use the cool electronic x-ray machines like at the hospitals. Those are HUGE and no way I could transport them. So instead we get these small tungsten lined steel boxed the size of a shoebox that weigh about 53 pounds. Inside is a small quantity of Iridium-192. Highly radioactive. To give you an idea of the seriousness of this stuff, if I were to expose the source (the capsule of Ir-192 itself) and sit next to it for about 30 minutes, I'll die a most painfull and messy death in about two weeks. Sorry for the details, and I'm sure I digress but I'm getting to the point.
The Feds and State Nuclear Regulatory Commissions have put tons of safety procedures and policies on the handling of this stuff... DUH! So when I'm working, one of the rules is NO ONE but ME and anyone who is State authorized can handle this stuff, use it, or even be in the vicinity!
Now here's the beef...
The worst thing that happens at the fab shops when I work there isn't getting there and finding a ton of welds to shoot. No. It's finally finishing up all of that ton and I've just packed up for the day, I'm tired and hungry and then the QC guy comes out and says, "Hey, don't pack up yet! We got a Hot Job that we NEED taken care of before tonight!"
Hot Jobs are like Ubber Priority! Stop what you're doing on the normal job and go knock it out! Well, I've gotten to a point that if I shoot more than 40 or 50 welds in a 10 hour period. The customer should consider themself GREATLY Fortunate and be kissing my toes for getting so much done.... NOT taking a dump on me and giving me more! I have things I need and would like to do TOO!
................
So I was working at a refinery being built called Motiva. I had this real nutcase as my QC. This guy said that he use to be a welder and this is his first time doing QC work. I guess they didn't tell him how x-ray guys do things. Oh and safety wasn't a primary concern of his either.
When I set up my stuff and erect a barricade. NO ONE CROSSES! Some people don't realize it, but it is AGAINST THE LAW to cross a Radiation barricade knowingly and without permission from the technician. You might get yelled at, but I might get a jail sentence. I do not want to go to jail because you think this stuff can't hurt you! STAY OUT!
Anyways, this guy not only repeatedly crossed my barricade but he would also grab my equipment and carry it to the location thinking he was helping out. Once again, getting me in trouble with the State Safetay guy isn't helping me out. He had the audacity to tell me where to put the barricade! Like, dude! Who took a fourty hour class on radiation safety here? -I- know where to put the barricade. He STILL tried to impose on me to put it where he wanted. I informed him that there is a minimun distance I must use. He seemed to not hear me or not care. He grabbed the barricade tape and started running it. I pulled out my pocket knife and cut the tape as he was running it. He started giving me this crap about I should do what he, the customer, says and respect his autority as a superior on this job. I had to take a moment to regroup and then inform him that HE was not the customer, he was just a pointer. His BOSS wasn't even the customer. They're just another sub-contractor that I'm working WITH, not FOR! And the only people who have any authority over me when it comes to handling my equipment and barricades are my bosses and the State Radiation Safety Office.
After that little incident blew over, things seemed ok. The one day he points out some welds up on the side of a steam tower. About 70 feet up. I'm not about to climb all the way up and THEN haul all 53 pounds of the camera (source box) up that narrow scaffold. He points out a JLG Lift to use. JLG Lifts are man-lifts. You have a basket on the end of a telesopic arm. Some of the bigger ones can extend up about 100 feet. Well I told him that I wasn't qualified to operate the lift. So he said he was. Ok, I said. Let's go. So we went up and I don't mind heights so much as long as I have something to cling to and a harness. Well in this basket, the wind was strong and some we're swaying back and forth about 10 feet either way. Yikes. But I gather up some fortitude and climb out. I get my stuff set up and I'm ready to shoot. I tell him he needs to move out. He says no. I say at least 30 feet. He says "It was hard enough to get the basket in place like it was he doesn't want to have to do it over and over again. I said then move out and wait till I'm done. It will only take a moment. He's still resistant so I tell him that it isn't safe. He'll get exposed. He said "Oh I got so many porblems with me, I'm dieing anyways." After hearing that I decided to break down my equipment and I told him to bring me down. He wanted to get an attitude so I pulled out my radio and called in the Safety guy. So the QC then went ahead and brought me down. When I got down, the safety guy was there and wanted to know what was up. QC Guy imediately starts spouting off all kinds of crap about how I refuse to do my job and such. I then loose me cool. Me and him got into a yelling match in the middle of the work area. We had people forming a circle to watch. I honestly thought we were gonna fight then. And if we had, I would have gotten my ass beat. Why? I found out later that he was a boxer for 25 years and had also been recently release from to 8 years in a state high security prison for attempted murder and aggrivated assault. WHEW!!! Anyways after the safety guy broke up the arguement he brought us inside and I informed him of EVERYTHING. Finishing it off with what the guy said about "I'm dieing anyways..." I told him that that kind of give-a-damn attitude is gonna get him hurt, but because he doesn't care, he's probably gonna get people around him hurt too. I told them that I hereby refuse to work within 20 feet of where he's at any more. Well, they got plenty of QC's but only a few x-ray techs so they re assigned him.
For once, the good guys WON!!!!
Thanks for reading!
-John
I've been tied up a while. But anyways, I'm here again.
I got a new job, right. It's industrial instead of food service. BUT, what I do specifically is still a service industry. I have taken my training and made quite a few accomplishments and now, one year later...(Get this, I bet NO ONE on this forum has this job...) I am a bona fide X-Ray technician!
Now, I know what you're gonna say. "Mary over here is an X-Ray Tech over at St. Mary's Hospital!" Well close, and sure you deal with customers of the absolute WORST kind.... Patients!
But no, I don't work in any Hospital. EEEW! Sick people make me sick.
I get to wear a hardhat and safety glasses. I do work almost anywhere, but mostly in plants, refineries, fabrication shops, pipelines, etc...
I go in and shoot x-rays on pipe welds to see if they're sound so they don't blow up tomorrow or 10 years from now. The company I work for subcontracts out to customers who are doing work for these places and need x-rays done. Normally I go in, make my introductions and have the QC guy show me where the welds are. Then I break out my equipment and get to work.
Now, I'm playing with some serious stuff here. I don't get to use the cool electronic x-ray machines like at the hospitals. Those are HUGE and no way I could transport them. So instead we get these small tungsten lined steel boxed the size of a shoebox that weigh about 53 pounds. Inside is a small quantity of Iridium-192. Highly radioactive. To give you an idea of the seriousness of this stuff, if I were to expose the source (the capsule of Ir-192 itself) and sit next to it for about 30 minutes, I'll die a most painfull and messy death in about two weeks. Sorry for the details, and I'm sure I digress but I'm getting to the point.
The Feds and State Nuclear Regulatory Commissions have put tons of safety procedures and policies on the handling of this stuff... DUH! So when I'm working, one of the rules is NO ONE but ME and anyone who is State authorized can handle this stuff, use it, or even be in the vicinity!
Now here's the beef...
The worst thing that happens at the fab shops when I work there isn't getting there and finding a ton of welds to shoot. No. It's finally finishing up all of that ton and I've just packed up for the day, I'm tired and hungry and then the QC guy comes out and says, "Hey, don't pack up yet! We got a Hot Job that we NEED taken care of before tonight!"
Hot Jobs are like Ubber Priority! Stop what you're doing on the normal job and go knock it out! Well, I've gotten to a point that if I shoot more than 40 or 50 welds in a 10 hour period. The customer should consider themself GREATLY Fortunate and be kissing my toes for getting so much done.... NOT taking a dump on me and giving me more! I have things I need and would like to do TOO!
................
So I was working at a refinery being built called Motiva. I had this real nutcase as my QC. This guy said that he use to be a welder and this is his first time doing QC work. I guess they didn't tell him how x-ray guys do things. Oh and safety wasn't a primary concern of his either.
When I set up my stuff and erect a barricade. NO ONE CROSSES! Some people don't realize it, but it is AGAINST THE LAW to cross a Radiation barricade knowingly and without permission from the technician. You might get yelled at, but I might get a jail sentence. I do not want to go to jail because you think this stuff can't hurt you! STAY OUT!
Anyways, this guy not only repeatedly crossed my barricade but he would also grab my equipment and carry it to the location thinking he was helping out. Once again, getting me in trouble with the State Safetay guy isn't helping me out. He had the audacity to tell me where to put the barricade! Like, dude! Who took a fourty hour class on radiation safety here? -I- know where to put the barricade. He STILL tried to impose on me to put it where he wanted. I informed him that there is a minimun distance I must use. He seemed to not hear me or not care. He grabbed the barricade tape and started running it. I pulled out my pocket knife and cut the tape as he was running it. He started giving me this crap about I should do what he, the customer, says and respect his autority as a superior on this job. I had to take a moment to regroup and then inform him that HE was not the customer, he was just a pointer. His BOSS wasn't even the customer. They're just another sub-contractor that I'm working WITH, not FOR! And the only people who have any authority over me when it comes to handling my equipment and barricades are my bosses and the State Radiation Safety Office.
After that little incident blew over, things seemed ok. The one day he points out some welds up on the side of a steam tower. About 70 feet up. I'm not about to climb all the way up and THEN haul all 53 pounds of the camera (source box) up that narrow scaffold. He points out a JLG Lift to use. JLG Lifts are man-lifts. You have a basket on the end of a telesopic arm. Some of the bigger ones can extend up about 100 feet. Well I told him that I wasn't qualified to operate the lift. So he said he was. Ok, I said. Let's go. So we went up and I don't mind heights so much as long as I have something to cling to and a harness. Well in this basket, the wind was strong and some we're swaying back and forth about 10 feet either way. Yikes. But I gather up some fortitude and climb out. I get my stuff set up and I'm ready to shoot. I tell him he needs to move out. He says no. I say at least 30 feet. He says "It was hard enough to get the basket in place like it was he doesn't want to have to do it over and over again. I said then move out and wait till I'm done. It will only take a moment. He's still resistant so I tell him that it isn't safe. He'll get exposed. He said "Oh I got so many porblems with me, I'm dieing anyways." After hearing that I decided to break down my equipment and I told him to bring me down. He wanted to get an attitude so I pulled out my radio and called in the Safety guy. So the QC then went ahead and brought me down. When I got down, the safety guy was there and wanted to know what was up. QC Guy imediately starts spouting off all kinds of crap about how I refuse to do my job and such. I then loose me cool. Me and him got into a yelling match in the middle of the work area. We had people forming a circle to watch. I honestly thought we were gonna fight then. And if we had, I would have gotten my ass beat. Why? I found out later that he was a boxer for 25 years and had also been recently release from to 8 years in a state high security prison for attempted murder and aggrivated assault. WHEW!!! Anyways after the safety guy broke up the arguement he brought us inside and I informed him of EVERYTHING. Finishing it off with what the guy said about "I'm dieing anyways..." I told him that that kind of give-a-damn attitude is gonna get him hurt, but because he doesn't care, he's probably gonna get people around him hurt too. I told them that I hereby refuse to work within 20 feet of where he's at any more. Well, they got plenty of QC's but only a few x-ray techs so they re assigned him.
For once, the good guys WON!!!!
Thanks for reading!
-John
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