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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.
They didn't violate the rules 24 other times, they got caught 24 other times. I would be surprised if the packages leak more than 1% of the time so they've probably violated the rules thousands of times at least.
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.
UPS is union and they need to sue to recover the costs that they suffered.
Don't get me started on all the double standards that UPS has going on in their shipping departments with their employees. That place is a sweatshop and the Union is in on it and has been since the 1980s!
By their own rules no loader is supposed to lift a package with a circumference around its widest part greater than 70 inches or weighing more than 70 kilograms.
That being said, I got a chewing out by a manager who sent down a bundle of solid steel bars that was 3 ft in circumference and was 12 ft long and weighed about 300 pounds and I was told "Just throw it in the truck!"
I complained about it to a higher up shift manager and the next day was fired.
They are lucky that I had another job lined up otherwise I would have totally sued their asses.
Realize though UPS is a shit job, where you pay about half your income in union dues for a union that basically does nothing for the employee and you are forced to work in an environment where safety rules are never followed and in 120 degree heat.
I ship Fed Ex where possible these days.
My Diet Coke can't make it past airport security but something named "Amazing Liquid Fire" can?
While 350 K$ is nothing to Amazon - bring down a plane with 300 passengers and the liability (~ a billion) will get even Amazon's attention.
True, but I imagine the fact that someone was smuggling 300 people on a UPS cargo flight would grab most of the headlines.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.