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Amazon Faces $350K Fine For Shipping 'Amazing Liquid Fire' (computerworld.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The FAA has ruled that Amazon will face a $350,000 fine for shipping a one-gallon container of "Amazing Liquid Fire" by air. The corrosive drain cleaner was sent by air from Louisville, Kentucky, to Boulder, Colorado, on October 15, 2014. The container leaked during transit and nine UPS employees came into contact with the chemical, which caused a "burning sensation on their skin" that had to be treated with a chemical wash. According to Computerworld, "The FAA ruled the shipment wasn't packaged properly, wasn't accompanied by a declaration of dangerous goods, and was not properly marked or labeled as a hazardous package. It also said Amazon didn't provide emergency response information with the package and had not provided hazardous material training to employees who handled the package." The FAA said in a statement, "Amazon has a history of violating the Hazardous Materials Regulations." They apparently violated the rules 24 other times.
If enough leaked to affect 9 employees handling the box after the flight then there's a reasonable possibility that the escaped liquid now poses a corrosion hazard to the aircraft structure. UPS should send them the bill for the complete inspection and overhaul of the affected areas of the aircraft used to transport it. Perhaps that will be more than the fine.
Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button
The MSDS for the product says sulfuric acid and Rodine.
Rodine is an acid inhibitor that attempts to prevent corrosion of metals by acids.
The liquid fire MSDS doesn't say specifically the concentrations (I hate that), but other drain cleaners of that type can be nearly 100% sulfuric acid.
It wouldn't come as a surprise if the thing was almost pure H2SO4.
Sulfuric acid is essentially sulfur trioxide gas dissolved in water. If the atmospheric pressure goes down, the SO3 gas comes out of solution, where it can hang around and then redissolve on moist surfaces, such as mucous membranes and moist eye tissue.
You haven't been to Amazon's secret 3rd party suppliers then who masquerade as "Amazon warehouse". Amazon likes to keep this a big secret and not let anyone known. Even the owners aren't allowed to speak about it, but the places I visit who warehouse my stuff, I see the Amazon labels being printed and handling Amazon orders. They're not the brightest people of the bunch (Low skilled minimum wage labor, you think they give a damn what gets shipped?) and Amazon doesn't really have any control of them or what they do (Underpaid management), at least from what I can see. So yeah, I more than likely believe hazardous material is being shipped by Amazon all the time without them notifying anyone.
And if you think Amazon demands they abide to a certain standard, yeah, good luck. I can't even get these warehouse guys to do it and keep proper inventory. They'll nod their heads, yeah yeah, but the reality is, low paid workers really don't care, but when you need the warehouse space, you really don't have much choice in the matter (They're all like this).
I have worked at UPS in probably the exact role you briefly did, "part time package handler," for twelve years now. You aren't wrong that it's drudgery and physical hardship, but you're kind of full of shit.
If you'd wanted to keep your job, wanted to complain, the union and the regulatory environment you live in in the United States are almost the most supportive environment for that you'll find on the planet. Some places are more careful; however all major institutions in society that have a large workforce are by design and nature keystone cop operations. You were the one who had a problem, and you didn't do anything about it. You seem, like lots of people, to want the excuse that those in authority let you down and you had to act as you did in response, that you got fired, not quit; that you were victimized.
I don't know if I have ever seen a 300 pound object in my building, in all my years there. Yes, I have seen things above the 150 pound weight limit, perhaps three or four a year. Hardly ever on the belt if not never, almost always on the floor, if not always. The people just like you and I who unload the trucks and the people who sort what's unloaded have no incentive to send something like that across. It could have happened, and I'm not calling you a liar. My experience leads me to suspect you're exaggerating the details though, both the severity of the hardship you encountered and the severity of the response.
I only bother to say all of this because I think this is the Santa Claus myth endangering civilization right now, that people are competent and institutions are as well, and they need to be treated as such and relied on to live up to their promises, and that we as individuals can place some misfortune from our own lives at their feet. I totally disagree. Every moment of my life has taught me the opposite.
Adult human beings and organizations so comprised are fallible, negligent, and in way way over their heads in exactly the ways you would take for granted that little children are. Looking down on a bunch of uneducated, sweaty middle aged men who yell into walkie talkies and nag other grown men to do physical chores that they themselves angrily thought, mistakenly, that they wouldn't have to do anymore upon promotion to full time management...well, that's mean. Even if they are paid well, and even if they have people beneath them they mistreat, everyone's expectations are too high. The ones in charge at a place like a UPS building are crabs terrified of being dropped back in the bucket. They abuse other people through their incompetence and small amounts of petty malice, but they are simply men who statistically tend to be morons, in charge of others from a larger population which is probably even less competent on average.
Christianity did a good job of advancing the cause of accepting an imperfect world, but something needs to come along to teach people to deal rationally with an imperfect creation and ultimate authority no more competent than its cast offs.