During my “lost years” early in my college days (i.e. before I discovered firefighting and OSH) I built swimming pools during the summers. That job required a lot of piping work, which I got pretty good at, at least I thought I had until I got into my first Chlorine (Cl2) process as a safety engineer. Now words mean a lot and when dealing with Cl2, DETAILS MATTER, so when I was learning about our Cl2 process I was exposed to “solvent welded CPVC joints”. At first, I was sure I was being “punked” by the engineering and maintenance team as I had never heard this phrase in all my years of joining PVC piping together. We always used the word “glue” when we were joining our water pipes together, but folks there is a BIG difference between “glue” and “solvent welded”. When it comes to Cl2 piping, many processes will use PVC or CPVC piping for their vacuum water systems. This was another big surprise for me, as I was used to seeing metal Cl2 piping. So now I was for sure I was being “punked”… we are going to put a HAZMAT that some even consider “lethal service” in a plastic pipe that is “solvent welded”… yeah right, now where’s the hidden camera! But this is reality, let me explain: