Well, the excitement at work never ends, I tell ya. Here’s how my “Friday” went…
I guess I should start this off by explaining that I work in a cleanroom (fab) making flash memory. The “Bay” I’m currently working in is about 10 feet wide by 60 feet long, and there are AWS’s or Automatic Wet Stations on either side. These AWS’s have robots that run the wafers, or chips, through a series of acid baths. The primary acid in there is hydrofluoric acid (HF).
Now, those of you with access to MSDS’s may want to take a look at HF. It has interesting properties. It doesn’t burn you like “normal” acid does. In fact, if you get some on you, you may not even know it’s there. What it will do instead is leach out the calcium from your bones. I’ve heard countless horror stories about unfortunate Fab workers who’ve lost a limb due to HF. I’ve also heard that you need painful calcium shots if you get some HF on you. One of my coworkers even told me the following story:
“You work with HF? That’s some nasty stuff. One guy out in Santa Clara accidently dunked his hand in a tank of it and died about 8 days later.” It turns out HF can cause pulminary edema as well.
Now that you know what some the dangers of HF are and the fact that I’m surrounded by it on both sides, you can imagine my dismay when I noticed my cleansuit sleeve was wet.
My first thought about this was, “Aw shit, should I hit the shower?”
Then I realized I was now dealing with HF, and my thought changed to, “OH SHIT, I SHOULD HIT THE SHOWER!!”
Well, corporate edict says that if you get something on you below your elbow, you don’t have to jump all the way in the shower, but instead use the handheld nozzle. It’s a good thing too, since when you get all the way in, you have to undress completely… and the water is kept at 58 degrees. “To close the pores of your skin,” they tell me. Regardless, that water is cold, and thankfully, I only had my arm in there. About this time, my trainer comes in…
“What happened, Lazlo?”
“I found a wet spot on my sleeve, so I’m rinsing it.”
“That’s HF in here, you don’t mess around with HF, you better get in all the way.”
“It’s only on my wrist, I don’t need to get in all the way.”
“It’s HF, get in.”
“It’s on my wrist, as in BELOW my elbow!”
“But it’s HF…”
Thankfully, ERT (Emergency Response Team) now shows up, since the shower triggers an alarm…
“What happened?”
“I had a wet spot on my sleeve and I don’t know what it was, so I figured I should play it safe.”
“Good. Was it below the elbow?”
“Yes.”
“Good. You have to rinse for 20 minutes.”
Now my trainer chimes in,
“It’s HF, you better get all the way in.”
I ask the ERT guy,
“Do I have to get all the way in?”
“No, unless you have some burning desire to take your clothes off.”
My trainer steps aside, mumbling something about HF. I’ve come to the conclusion that she either really wanted to see me naked, or is dumb as a post. Given what I look like, it’s most likely it’s the latter.
The ERT guy continues,
“When did you notice it?”
“I was at the workstation when I leaned back, crossed my arms, and saw that my arm was wet.”
“This workstation?”
“Yup.”
The ERT guy in charge tells the other ERT guys,
“Okay, check the workstation for wet spots and don’t anyone sit there!”
In that split second before the other ERT guys could sweep the workstation, my trainer sits there to check her email. Okay… maybe posts, rocks, trees, etc. are more intelligent… and that’s my TRAINER, dammit!
The 20 minutes pass (very slowly), and I’m escorted out of the Fab to some other ERT personnel, who then escort me to the nurse’s station.
The nurse explains the treatment they have to do. Mainly it involves rubbing a calcium gluconate gel on the affected area. Calling it a gel is kind of a stretch. It’s more like really stinky Elmer’s glue. I had to rub it over my arm for 15 minutes and leave it on for 4 hours. Not pleasant. Anyway, I finished up with the “gel” just in time to go to lunch and the nurse wrapped my arm with gauze to protect the Elmer’s gluconate.
I went to lunch (dinner for you day folks) with my old trainer and another coworker. It was pretty uneventful for a while. I asked them not to give me grief about the shower and they pretty much did as I asked. However, when we were leaving, we found that my friend’s truck was broken into while we were eating. We then had to wait for the police to show up, do the report, etc, so we went back to work very late.
When I got into my bay, my trainer was there…
“I was wondering if you were gonna come back in. Some people get spooked with something like that and don’t come back in.”
“No, Ron’s truck got broken into while we were at the restaurant.”
“You know, I won’t blame you if you’re shook up. I know I was after I had to get in the shower.”
“We had to wait for the police…”
“Yeah, I wasn’t able to come back in the fab after I got in the shower. It’s okay that you took your time coming in.”
“You know, when the police show up at a crime scene, they have to make what’s called a Police Report.”
“Don’t feel bad, everyone gets shook up by this kinda stuff.”
I gave up at this point. How can you argue with that kind of logic?
Well the day is finally over, thankfully. My arm is okay and I’m not showing any HF symptoms, but I have to be monitored for a while. Oh, and I have to go to a review board, where I’ll explain this misadventure several times to different levels of the Management Gestapo.
So tell me, how was your day?
