Hazardous Material on Ship

A large portion of the paperwork generated daily on a modern naval ship is to check out hazardous materials, or hazmat as it is referred to on ship. Hazmat is any material that is deemed too dangerous to be readily available on ship, whether because it is highly flammable and could spread a fire faster than normal or because it gives off a vapor dangerous to breathe if handled in certain ways, and is kept in a locked room. The room is next to the hull of the ship and under water but easily isolated in case it explodes or there is a leak inside the room deemed too dangerous to deal with by the crew. The hazmat inside are all carefully organized and secured somehow so nothing shifts too much or tilts while the ship itself rolls with the waves. Each container has a sticker on it saying what its inventory number is, what date it needs to get checked for usability again, and its technical name. For anyone to do maintenance calling for anything from types of mechanical grease to most cleaning liquids and almost any other liquid or gel used on ship but not part of cooking the user has to print off a sheet of paper with the name and inventory number of the item requested and take it to the hazmat custodian. The custodian then enters the request in the computer program they have and prints out two receipts. Both get sighed and dated by the hazmat custodian and the user and the custodian ventures into the hazmat locker and brings back the necessary material. The user than takes their copy of the receipt and the material to their workspace to finish their maintenance. If the hazmat isn’t returned by the end of the work day, the hazmat custodian has the receipt as proof and the workspace the user belongs to gets penalized for not returning the hazmat on time. If the user wants to keep the hazmat longer than the single work day, he or she needs to get a few signatures on the sheet they print off before taking it down to the hazmat custodian. The custodian then makes a mark in the records and on the receipt saying when it will be returned so the workspace doesn’t get penalized.
As paint and primer are highly flammable they are also kept in the hazmat locker. However, those two liquids are also used daily on ship by someone so they have a paint locker as well. The main supply of unopened paint and primer cans is kept in the hazmat locker but a weeks supply or so is kept in a room called the paint locker. It is placed next to the hull but above water level and has thick walls, is easily isolated in case of fire, and has a special system installed that is designed to put out paint fires by covering the fire to block out any oxygen it needs. The same rules apply to the paint as to hazmat as far as requesting it daily only the sheet of paper is different and goes to the paint custodian, a person trained to pour and mix the paint and primer with the least mess possible whose day job it is to monitor the paint used on ship.