Sending workers into the California gas leak.

There is an extremely alarming gas leak in California currently.  This issue posses a massive environmental and public health issue.  The leaking well has currently leaked thousands of metric tons of methane into the atmosphere. About five thousand homes have been evacuated and all the people who live in them are currently displaced.  The methane is known to convert into formaldehyde.  This reaction is taking place when the methane is released into the atmosphere, and comes in contact with sunlight. Although methane can cause serious dangers like oxygen displacement, formaldehyde is more dangerous to human health especially in gas form.  Formaldehyde can cause health problems like, asphyxiation, acidosis, nosebleeds, head aces, and more. Also, oppose to rising into the atmosphere, much of this gas is actually sinking into the city, further increasing the danger. The city near the gas leek is in a valley, which is acting like a bowl for this dangerous gas. 

To even further escalade the danger, experts are now saying there is radioactive material being released from the leak.   With all this considered, the environment around this gas leak has the potential to be oxygen deficient, toxic, and radioactive.  Many things would need to be considered if an individual was forced to enter this environment to fix the leek or do other work.  First and foremost, no one should enter the environment alone.  The “buddy system” would be crucial in this type of scenario.  Going in alone would be dangerous because you would have no one to help you or notify others in the event of an emergency.  An individual would most likely need to wear a SAR, or supplied air respirator.  Supplied air respirators are the only real way to combat oxygen deficiency.  SARs are also the ideal way to protect against inhaling alpha particles or other types of radiation.  Alpha particles are the suspected form of radiation at the site.  However, you only have a certain amount of air in your SAR tank. Depending on this size of the tank, you would need to calculate how long a worker could be in this environment.  By estimate, a worker would have no longer than 15 minutes with a typical SAR system.  Although an air tube would also be a possible choice, but may prove too unwieldy. 

 If the environment is in fact radioactive, people working in the environment will need to be wearing full airtight suites that will prevent direct exposure to radioactivity.  If they radiation is in fact known to be alpha radiation only, simply an airtight hazmat suit would be sufficient because the aloha particles will not penetrate it. And than of coarse, they will still need to be fitted with a SAR system inside there suit.  Both methane and formaldehyde are very flammable.  So as a safety professional, you must make sure there is no ignition source present.  A sudden fire could cost many lives.  There may also be many “site specific” hazards that would not become apparent until further planning and observing.  So it is important the individuals going into the environment are very observant of there surroundings.