No matter how much a person loves his or her job, sometimes it’s just not easy to wake up on Monday morning for yet another week of the grind. A new week of work brings fresh stresses, projects and worries, but for workers in a handful of industries, it also brings yet another week of injury risk.
Take for example construction and industrial workers, who face the possibility of chemical exposure, power tool injuries and serious falls, among other risks, every day. Although week after week they step into an environment that they trust is safe, far too many news stories of worker injuries and death tell a different tale.
One of the more dangerous industries out there is the oil refinery business. Big in Texas and various other states, the industry has seen its fair share of explosions and workplace disasters. A recent accident coming out of Mississippi is just one of many.
According to news reports, five workers were injured in an explosion at an oil well run by a Texas-based company. The incident happened on Monday morning, sending all five to the hospital with burn injuries. Although they haven’t pinned down a cause for the explosion, a state official says these types of explosions usually happen when fuel and air mix, causing combustion. The explosion was large enough to also destroy a petroleum-chemical storage tank, as well as a pickup truck.
Although a county official called such an incident “highly unusual,” even one incident can unfortunately pave a long road to recovery for victims. People who work in these types of industries have the right to feel safe on Monday and every other day of the week.
Source: Hattiesburg American, “5 injured in Wayne Co. oil well explosion,” Ed Kemp, Sept. 17, 2013
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