After a recent class, we got to think about how, in hazmat, we’re always told to avoid using our five senses. But honestly, we don’t always follow that advice ourselves. In this episode, we dig into how your senses might actually help you out in certain situations. Give it a listen!

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the guys dive back into the hotly debated topic of using your senses on hazmat scenes—especially smell, sight, and sound. They respond to some “snide remarks” from listeners, clarify what they are and are not saying about using odor, and walk through how visual, thermal, auditory, and environmental cues can help you make smarter, safer decisions on scene. The big theme: your senses are clues, not meters, and they should always be backed up (or contradicted) by science, instrumentation, and risk-based response.

Timestamps & Segment Breakdown

00:00 – 04:48 · Intro & Listener Snark

The hosts re-open the “smell” can of worms, address some critical feedback from listeners, and have a little fun with the idea of people “sniffing their nose” at the last episode.

04:49 – 07:24 · Why Odor Is NOT a Primary Indicator

• Why relying on your nose as a primary detector violates risk-based response.
• Highly toxic gases you can’t smell or that wipe out your sense of smell in seconds.
• Gases with no odor at all (e.g. carbon monoxide, radioactive gases).
• Story time: repeated runs for a woman in Bushwick who “smelled radioactive gas,” triggering full hazmat responses over and over.

07:24 – 09:18 · “If You Can Smell the Bomb…” – Practical Odor Use

• If you smell something on scene, you’re probably already too close.
• “If you can see the bomb, the bomb can see you” applied to odor.
• Step back, mask up, expand isolation, and bring in appropriate meters (electrochemical, PID, colorimetric tubes, etc.) while understanding their limitations.

09:18 – 11:27 · Visual Clues: Pressurization, Bulging Drums & Cylinders

• Sight as your strongest information-gathering sense.
• Bulging drums and overpressurized containers as signs of polymerization, decomposition, or runaway reactions.
• Examples: swollen spray foam barrels after a fire.
• Swollen cylinders and the “oh crap” factor—risk of BLEVE and violent failure.

11:27 – 12:02 · Tanks, Totes, and Overpressurization from Afar

• Reading tank cars and totes from a distance: venting, deformation, and heat impingement clues.

12:02 – 15:38 · Thermal Clues: Frost Lines, Cryogenics & Heat Shimmer

• Low-tech frost lines on cylinders as phase-change and leak indicators.
• Cryogenic leaks: extreme cold, icing, and using a TIC (thermal imaging camera) to see what your eyes can’t.
• Heat shimmer, paint blistering, and metal discoloration as signs of thermal stress—especially when there’s no obvious external heat source.

15:38 – 17:41 · Swollen Containers: What NOT to Do

• Don’t tap, push, or casually move bulging containers.
• Start with an expanded hot zone—assume a larger “whoosh” if it fails.
• Use remote temperature checks and TICs to determine if the situation is stable or still getting worse before committing teams.

17:41 – 19:03 · Highs and Lows: Listening to Your Scene

• High-pitched whistling from cylinders indicating leaks (valves, packing, threads).
• Using low-sound tools like a stethoscope to pick up boiling, popping, or decomposition in small vessels.

19:03 – 20:24 · Physical & Environmental Clues: Vapor Clouds, Water, & Cryo

• Vapor clouds hugging the ground: heavier-than-air gases vs. cold, evaporating products.
• Ice patches as signs of cryogenic releases.
• Strange “boiling” or swirling in water indicating underwater reactions or immiscible products interacting.

20:24 – 22:01 · Dead Grass, Dead Critters & Corrosion

• Environmental/biological clues: dead vegetation and animals as early indicators of toxic atmospheres with smaller body-mass victims going down first.
• Distinguishing real hazmat casualties from “sleepy hipsters” and the everyday urban background.
• Corrosion, staining, and metal damage as signs that “something happened here” and PPE compatibility may be a problem.

22:01 – 25:08 · Sensory Bias, Confirmation Bias & PPE Decisions

• Sensory bias: getting too comfortable with familiar smells (like gasoline) and forgetting you’re in a flammable atmosphere.
• Aligning sensory clues with meter readings and basic science (LEL, toxicity, etc.) before acting.
• Managing panicked civilians who overreact to odor-only clues vs. what the numbers actually say.
• How sensory information plus meter data should drive changes in PPE and tactics, just like meter readings alone would.