Hazardous Laundry

The laundry bins at work were recently upgraded.

My building employs mostly chemical operators who wear uniforms while they do their work in the process bays. These are washed and repaired regularly by an outside service. (For people who are just joining me, the three exceptions to the uniform rule are the building manager, secretary, and me.)

The laundry baskets that they use to collect the worn linens are nothing more than laundry bags held up by wire frames. The locker rooms each have several of them lined up neatly against the center wall. Previously, the laundry bags were hospital white.

This week, I noticed for the first time that now the bags are now a teal color and are labeled in bright orange letters with the words “Biohazard Linens.”

I laughed.

Technically, the label is totally appropriate, although obviously the company has many systems in place to prevent people from routinely dousing their clothing with known hazardous materials.

But I consider this to be terribly amusing all the same. I knew a bunch of people at college who needed those laundry bags. They might have worked with a lot fewer chemicals than our operators do, but still… Gross.

I wonder if it would be illegal for those things to be sold directly to the public at someplace like “Linens and Things.” I know a bunch of sarcastic mothers who would think themselves awfully clever if they got their kids a hamper like that.

Plus, can you imagine the possibility for abuse? I’m picturing some clever guy living in an apartment somewhere, forced to haul his laundry to a crowded Laundromat on a regular basis, just to wait in line for hours. I figure it will only take a few loads of biohaz washing before he’s alone in there. And even if that doesn’t work, the looks on people’s faces would be classic.