Back when I was working, I went to the industrial hygienists' convention in New Orleans. Industrial hygienists are the people who sample hazardous workplaces and help their employers stay in compliance with OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) regulations. They are not the same thing as Safety guys, and large manufacturers usually split the duties into two jobs. For one thing it would be a waste of an IH's education and training to have to do safety, and the safety guys have their own arcane knowledge.

Anyhow, one of the presentations at the convention was named after an OSHA inspector who had died. He apparently had a great sense of humor and loved telling stories of strange situations that he came across. It is a kind of dark humor because a lot of the time it is a workplace fatality or serious injury that brings in OSHA in the first place.

One of them had to do with dog food.

This dog food manufacturer was storing bulk raw ingredients in the basement of the factory. The pipes froze and the basement flooded, getting the ingredients wet, but nobody realized the extent of it. When someone finally went down there, the stuff had started to mold and ferment and release toxic gases.

The basement wasn't ventilated well enough, and lethal gases built up in there creating what is referred to as a confined space hazard. Anyone (including rats) going in there can pass out and die in seconds and those who follow in rescue attempts can also die unless someone is standing by with the proper equipment to yank their inert body out of there.

A rope tied to the bumper of a pickup truck is not considered proper equipment.

When it was all over and done, two employees were dead and a couple more were in the hospital, but I'll never forget envisioning that basement full of reeking dog food.