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24 Amazon Workers Sent To Hospital After Robot Accidentally Unleashes Bear Spray
Joe_Dragon shares a report from ABC News: Twenty-four Amazon workers in New Jersey have been hospitalized after a robot accidentally tore a can of bear repellent spray in a warehouse, officials said. The two dozen workers were treated at five local hospitals, Robbinsville Township communications and public information officer John Nalbone told ABC News. One remains in critical condition and 30 additional workers were treated at the scene. The official investigation revealed "an automated machine accidentally punctured a 9-ounce bear repellent can, releasing concentrated Capsaican," Nalbone said. Capsaican is the major ingredient in pepper spray. The fulfillment center was given the all clear by Wednesday evening. "All of the impacted employees have been or are expected to be released from hospital within the next 24 hours. The safety of our employees is always our top priority and a full investigation is already underway. We'd like to thank all of the first responders who helped with today's incident," Amazon said in a statement Wednesday night.
No. Bear spray isn't as concentrated as pepper spray meant for humans. Bears have greater sensitivity. Bear spray is made for reach while pepper spray is thicker.
In many facilities, particularly large warehouses and tall office buildings, calling 911 will tell the operator the geo-coordinates of the facility, but not the floor or where in a facility the actual problem is. So, for example, in my company (HQ in a 30 story building), we have well known and well publicized alternate emergency numbers and processes that uses our internal phone system's logic to determine, down to the room, where the building emergency number was dialed. Trained first responders that are employees of the company have full and complete access to all locations in the facility and can rapidly escort external fire, police and EMT responders to the appropriate location.
Same process for all of our warehouses and smaller facilities. You have the option of dialing 911 on your cell phone, but we all know it will be more efficient to use the internal system because of the logistics involved in getting responders where they need to be.
--I like turtles...
Exactly this. I worked in a building for 1300 people and all 911 calls were routed through security since the most appropriate first responded would be the onsite nurse and an ambulance would have no way to find out where in the building the emergency was happening if security didn't direct them.
Salty water.
There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
You mean in your country it is illegal to call the people who can get there quickest? It is illegal to, instead of having some random person calling 911 (or whatever), have a person who is trained and can provide the exact information the responders need in order to enter the property and locate the person with the problem? It is illegal to have the path to the person cleared of foot and vehicular traffic before the responders get there? Either that is complete bullshit, or you live in some really screwed up country.
I'll give you an example. My wife works at a large high school, and medical emergencies are not uncommon. Proper procedure is to call 911 from a school phone, which calls the office. The office sends the nurse to the problem, puts the school on lockdown so the halls are clear, and calls emergency services to provide clear information on where the problem is and how to get there. A few years ago a teacher appeared to be having a heart attack, and rather than follow proper procedure, someone decided to use their cell phone to call 911. The ambulance showed up at the main entrance, and the security people had no idea why they were there or where they were supposed to be going. Worse, it was class-changing time, so all the hallways were clogged with a few thousand students. By the time they got everything sorted out it was almost 20 minutes from the call, and the teacher was in pretty bad shape. So they did, in fact, make a new rule to help with this. If a 911 call comes in and the person gives the location as the high school (or one of several large business campuses), the 911 operator wll direct them to hang up and call the local emergency number. When a similar situation happened a few years later, the school nurse was providing aid less than 2 minutes after the call, the ambulance arrived on site within 5 minutes, and the ambulance crew was treating the person within 7 minutes.