Beer line cleaners running risk of blindness, Herald Sun Today

[beercus]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/beer-line-cleaners-running-risk-of-blindness-as-they-not-forced-to-wear-goggles-when-using-chemicals/story-fni0fiyv-1226995380418?nk=69727004b1e263e4d40e3618052ccd52

Get out the hazmat suit and motorcycle helmet.

Beercus

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

The same precautions should be used with sanitisers, always use PPE's.
Nev

 

[beercus]

So what chemical are the commercial guys using?

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Usually some sort of Alkali salt

 

[Bribie G]

Murdoch press usually gets it dead wrong anyway.

 

[rheffera]

Murdoch press usually gets it dead wrong anyway.

I AM MURDOCH. I TELL YOU WHAT TO BELIEVE

 

[The Judge]

Get out the hazmat suit and motorcycle helmet.

Beercus

I have a hard enough time convincing my 16 yr old cousin I'm only making beer. Adding yellow hazmat suits, eye protection and breathing apparatus to my brew gear would only raise his suspicions further!

 

[beercus]

I have a hard enough time convincing my 16 yr old cousin I'm only making beer. Adding yellow hazmat suits, eye protection and breathing apparatus to my brew gear would only raise his suspicions further!

Breaking bad has everyone suspicious!

 

[warra48]

I would have thought the usual Occupational Health and Safety Legislation would take care of this.
Why do we need specific legislation or regulations to deal with beer lines?
If your eyes are exposed to chemicals damaging to your eyesight, then surely it is incumbent on the employer to provide appropriate safety measures, no matter where or how they are used?

Dumb arsed press, mostly gets things wrong, so long as it is sensational.
Or, never let the truth stand in the way of a good story.

The press is dumb arsed, because that's mostly where they hide any smidgeon of intelligence they might possibly possess.

 

[elcarter]

Bang on warra,

Just a case of some employers not carrying out their duties and creating the already enforced safety environment within their organisation.

locally manufactured hazard register and safe working practices. I bet there were some near misses on numerous shifts that ether were not reported or acted upon.

You do have to wonder what went wrong was it at the tap end or a issue with the pressurised vessel at the other end?

Edit all so the employees responsibility to hold the employer to account no doubt at the the risk of hours and effectively their job.

 

[DU99]

poor training by some bosses sometimes,workers taking shortcut's can also be an issue.eye protection is cheap..so are gloves..

 

[madpierre06]

The tap end isn't going to have any issuesd as the taps are facing down and the fluid would only come through under regular beer pressure so I couldn't see any problems there under normal (correct) clean out operations. At the keg end, they would have water flushed first so the water cleans through then you'd have a feed line sourcing the line cleaner which is pumped through the system under normal pressure. Without going into the whole changeover process I can only see that maybe they were changing connections at the cellar end and have released a coupling with fluid still in the lines and under pressure and there's been a blowback hence eyes and faces being affected. If there was a high pressure incident at the tap end that has to mean that there hasn't been a conntiuous beer/water/fluid/water/gas cycle run through and maybe they've blown out the fluid with gas which is ilikely to cause a splash up from the drain bucket instead of running water through to finish flushing the lines first. I reckon a fair chance that pressure to minimise hours in the bar has led to shortcuts in the process and staff not fully trained in this stuff.