It's always a shock when stuff like this happens...but I don't know how to fix it without having people die first. Our industrial society uses a lot of hazardous materials on a daily basis, and knowledge of what those hazards are is the only way people can stay safe. How does one explain to people the risk if they won't listen, refuse to be educated? One ends up sounding like chicken little...until the sky really does fall.
An acquaintance from high school, a classic "jock", went into the welding business with his dad after graduation. To say that this guy was as dumb as rocks would not be unfair. They were doing some pipefitting at a machine shop, and apparently ignored the sign on a dumpster nearby that said "Danger - Flammable - Magnesium Chips". I'm sure the pile of what looked like aluminum seemed pretty harmless. Both son and father were horribly burned, both lost their lives after a long several days of suffering. A tragedy. But for 30 seconds of education (Take this strip of magesium foil and light it with a match. Then throw it in a bucket of water. Our chemistry prof. at school showed us this demonstration. The jock never took chem.)
Nowadays, with YouTube right here on my work computer, it is pretty straightforward to search on terms like "burst test", play a video clip and put some shock and awe into what I tell the shop techs before they hydro test our products. And they take care, and treat the hazard seriously, for all the joking we do. But somewhere else on this site a lad is talking about building a very high-rpm rotor and testing it; I can't find an easy link to a video of a high-rpm rotor burst test, and I'm not in a position to make him watch it. All we can do is squawk and flap our feathers, and hope.
