Re: What are the worst things that have happened due to content mistake?

["Peter Neilson" <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>]

Robert's referenced pdf from the DOE tells how flammable "organic" kitty  
litter was used instead of inert zeolite clay kitty litter. Some nitrates  
(one immediately thinks of KNO3) easily yield oxygen to things that want  
to burn. KNO3 is part of traditional gunpowder.

Undocumented changes to procedures for handling dangerous materials  
apparently occur frequently. Sometimes a person unskilled in chemistry  
corrects what seems to be a spelling error in a document, or substitutes a  
material that is presumably the same thing but is cheaper. My wife relates  
several occurrences at work, such as the substitution, by the purchasing  
department, of chopped newspaper instead of vermiculite and of  
trichloroethane instead of trichloroethylene.

The vermiculite and the chopped newspaper can both be used as "insulating  
material" in construction. Only the vermiculite is appropriate for  
packaging containers of certain reactive chemicals. My wife discovered the  
substitution through her careful attention to details. She have prevented  
some horrific tragedy.

The trichloroethylene was for degreasing the yarn for making the fabric  
brushes that were part of Xerox copiers. Trichloroethane does not do  
degreasing, and the result was several million dollars loss, after Xerox  
complained to the fabric supplier.

There are methods for preventing this sort of error, but they only work  
within a corporate culture where top management sees assurance of quality  
as a primary goal. The employee who discovers and reports a problem must  
not be pushed aside or fired.

"Faster, cheaper, better. Choose two. You'll never get all three."

Government agencies often seem to choose among "slower, costlier, worse"  
instead. They really can get all three.

The Department of Energy presumably has friction between actual scientists  
and political hacks. Did someone substitute "organic" kitty litter because  
the word "organic" somehow makes everything better and green?

On Tue, 24 Apr 2018 03:31:29 -0400, Robert Lauriston  
<robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> wrote: