30% H2S: The Exposure That Should Have Killed Me | The Risk Matrix Episode 70

Risk Matrix #70: 30% H₂S: The Exposure That Should Have Killed Me

In 1983, I encountered a sweet smell that should have been my last breath. At 300,000 parts per million of hydrogen sulfide, the exposure was exponentially beyond fatal levels. Yet here I am.

“Chuck shouldn’t be here now. Chuck should be dead… all those workers that went down there to rescue Chuck, they all should be dead… that’s all I can say with the amount of H₂S they were exposed to.”

Fresh out of college, with my oil field knowledge coming from “The Beverly Hillbillies,” I made a decision that defied my supervisors – and somehow lived to tell about it.

What happened that day transformed me from an “ignorant college boy” into one of the nation’s leading H₂S experts. But more importantly, it revealed hard truths about safety culture that the industry needed to hear.

As James recalls: “When I first got into the oil field, this guy that taught the H₂S class – everything you did, you gonna die. If you get out the truck, and you’re thinking about your momma, and you’re not thinking about H₂S, you’re going to die. You gonna die die, die, die, die. I was so stressed out after 4 hours of that course, I told my wife, I’m going back into the Navy. They’re killing people in the oil and gas industry. I felt like I needed a strong drink and Xanax after that H₂S course. Scaring people is not the goal… but you do need a healthy fear and awareness of this chemical.”

Listen to the full episode to discover how this brush with death revolutionized H₂S safety practices.

Follow this up with last week’s episode.

***Listen to the previous episode about H₂S incident in Deer Park Texas. We talked about process safety, sub contractor management, the importance of having a well executed safety management system.