Fifteen minutes ago, I'm working back up in the quarter berth on a friend's
boat, alone I might add.
I'm replacing some PVC for the
cockpit drains.
Having dry fit my
parts, I go to glue up half the job. I apply my glue and think to myself how much it sucks huffing PVC glue fumes crammed up underneath the
cockpit.
I awkwardly am reaching around and shoving these
parts together and I feel a drip on my eyebrow and think to myself "gee that's odd, you just cleaned and dried the surfaces and inside of pipe, where's the
water coming from?"
Two seconds later my brow starts feeling like burning.
Of course it's PVC glue you fxking idiot!
Not five minutes earlier, while rummaging around for sand paper, I ran across some safeties but I was so caught up in the mundanity of my task it didn't even occur to me to put them on. Even though I was working overhead. With friggin PVC glue. Idiot.
And the really sad part is that I should know better.
Years ago, working under an upside down
boat I took a silica-and-wood-flour thickened
epoxy hit to my left eye. I was filleting a bulkhead in a small compartment that was close to the floor and difficult to reach so I am lying on the ground looking up.
I actually been wearing real goggles up to a point but they were fogging up and in needed to finish the job quick so I took them off. Idiot. Bam!
Suffice it to say I had read the MSDS and frankly, the fact that uncured
epoxy hardener invitromutagenicity tests positive was going through my mind while this **** is burning my eyeball. That was the start of a very bad couple weeks.
All I can say is thank god I was working with someone that day, which was not typical of the time, as is the case today. Seriously. No joke.
Safety first. From someone who has been there. Please.
PS. I had an eyewash kit when I took the epoxy hit. You should too. Not today. Idiot.