16 February 2013
Please! Look At Me.... when You Speak
Many years ago, I started work as a Trainee Production Manager in a large Chemical Company. My previous jobs for another companies and being self-employed as a Work Study Engineer qualified me for this new position, I was excited at the new opportunity.
Because of my experience in workplace ergonomics I was given the responsibility of managing a small workforce as part of my training program there where a lot of problems and dangerous short cut practice's done in this area.
Under my direct control was a charge hand and four blending operators, my job was to manage the tasks required for the day. These tasks where delegating the days work routine to each of the five men, setting the batch products routine for the rest of the day, ordering the chemical required for each batch and the time these orders needed to be fulfilled. An important feature was that after each batch produced a full cleaning Schedule because of the danger of a fire hazard caused by ignition from the combustion of mixed power chemicals.
The rest of my days was "Scheduled on a Management Training Course" to learn all aspects of the chemical industry. This was to continue until the position became available when the current person retired I was to be the replacement.
As areas of training where completed I was given as many tasks of responsibility, the one that changed my life so radically was when I went to view and report on a secondhand blending machine, that was in current use at a chemical plant in 'Ware' Near London.
I remember, my report started with, my first impressions of the very old blending machine operation, and of the man who was operating this machine. He was a very large man with pale skin and red hair. I observed his methods of work for my report for one week.
To my surprise each day he retrieved his bag containing his lunch, he takes it out his bag, pulls himself up a chair, then he invites use to share his lunch in this chemical filled room, we declined of course, I can still remember the sickly smell of that room.
Everything that I had seen during the week I was there, went against all of my research .
My report was produced but the company went ahead and bought this secondhand blender, they did however produce some guidelines on the operation procedure.
These were as follows: - The Product being Produced was Streptomycin The machine was housed in a separate room within the powderers department 1. People with pale skin and red hair cannot operate this blending product as it could damage their health. 2. Fresh protective clothing must always be worn at every entry
One the five men had pale skin and red hair but I was overruled, he was the one selected to be the main man on this machine. Like myself my charge hand did not like this arrangement, but the operator liked the job. Then my charge hand and the blender operator fell out, they started quarrelling all of the time.
The day came that this conflict between the two men made a vast difference to my life. A last batch of the product being produced would not be completed until 5. 30 pm that day, but normal working hours finished at 5pm. Neither the operator or the charge hand would stay to complete the batch it was a start and complete operation. The charge hand was normally really good man and a very good worker, but it seems he had quite enoughed that day.
One of the other machine operators volunteered to finish off the operate on the machine for me, although he had never been on this machine before. I accepted his offer, explained what was required and left him to it.
At 5.20pm the operator put out a call for me, I got fitted out to go into the blending room, he was worried that the batch should have produced four kegs of completed product while he had only managed to get three kegs of product.
I was worried now that the conflict between the two men had put this expensive product at risk of being rejected. If the correct amount of kegs was not withdrawn from the machine then the product would be waste. I check the barrels to see if they were overfilled but no they where not. Then the operator said I did not really understand the markings on the shutter lever, it was in felt tipped pen marked on/off with an arrow indicating the direction to push. The operator suggested that he may not have pulled the lever over far enough .
I asked him to turn of the isolator on the wall so I could check this out. He turned of the isolator, I knelt down to view under the body of the machine checked it out, it looked as if it was closed correctly, I went to raise, my hand sliding along the body of the machine and about an inch of the shutter must have been still open. The shear strength of the suction pulled my hand into the machine.
I was rushed to hospital, after the company tried to take a statement from me asking did I put my hand in the machine, and many more questions, I answered 'Yes' to ever one I seemed to be in a little world of my own.
It took a legal battle of ten years to prove that the product was responsible for my hand disability and my deafness.For seven of those years I researched and I represented myself.
My Story "The Cause Of My Deafness" - 63 • Opuss № I