According to its Wikipedia entry:
"Deadliest Catch is an American reality television series that premiered on the Discovery Channel on April 12, 2005. The show follows crab fishermen aboard fishing vessels in the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab and snow crab fishing seasons. The show’s title is derived from the inherent high risk of injury or death associated with this line of work.”
As befitting the title, since its first broadcast, there have been many episodes where fisherman were hurt while on board one of the fishing boats. It is a job that only a few people in the world can do – and honestly want to do. Its dangerous, back-breaking work – with no guarantee of a payday.
In one episode in the current season, the crew on one of the boats was going to “surprise” one of their fellow crew members on his birthday with a good-natured prank – which went horribly wrong.
As described by Yahoo’s Entertainment section
“The situation began innocently enough as a good-natured birthday prank when deckhands aboard the Time Bandit planned to celebrate Deadliest Catch staple and deck boss Freddy Maugatai’s 50th birthday with a flour bombing that unexpectedly turned nearly tragic.
After presenting him with a crab-pot buoy inscribed with “Happy 50th B-day, Freddie” and “We Luv U,” the plan was to cut the lights on the boat to create a blackout, crush a dozen and a half eggs on Maugatai’s head, dust him with a huge sack of flour and fire up an emergency flare, creating a human birthday cake of sorts.
Trouble is, no one seemed to know that flour is extremely flammable, especially when airborne, and Maugatai was instantly and completely engulfed in flames.
It was a very scary moment when seen from the bridge as the fisherman screamed in shock and pain and ran to dunk his burned face and head in the ship’s seawater-filled fish hold.”
Luckily Maugatai emerged from this scary incident unharmed. But it does show what can happen when you don’t take dust seriously. It can do some real harm.
In solid dosage facilities, the monitoring and control of dust is of upmost importance. While a few pounds of flour can produce a very dangerous situation - hundreds of pounds of excipients and active ingredients being blended, moved, and processed can cause situations where dust poses a huge explosion threat.
In this issue of Tablets & Capsules we take a deep look at dealing with dust. Articles included in this issue cover dust fire prevention strategies, how to automate dust handling procedures to improve safety, and how to monitor dust collection.
If you are involved in plant safety, or just want to learn more about the dangers of dust, I highly recommend reading these articles.
In fact, reading this entire issue would probably be a nice accompaniment whilst eating crab legs.
Just remember where they came from.
Mike Auerbach
Editor-In-Chief