Member Spotlight: David Blocker (HASA, Inc.)

CI: Tell us a little about yourself, and what you do.
David Blocker holds an A.S. in Occupational Environmental Health & Safety from Texas State Technical College and a B.S. in the same field from Eastern Kentucky University. For over five years, David has led safety initiatives at HASA, Inc., training more than 120 employees in chemical handling, hazardous waste disposal, and emergency preparedness. He manages regulatory recordkeeping and collaborates with manufacturing teams on response protocols and equipment use.

CI: When did you first become involved at CI?

I have been with CI since 2021 and still going strong.

CI: What is something interesting about you that few would know or guess?

I guess I am a living testament that you should never assume you have every safety step covered.  I was working as a Branch Safety Inspector for a national roofing company when I was asked to go inspect a customer’s roof to install a fall arrest system. I had the blueprints in hand and preformed an underdeck inspection before going up onto the top of the roof that was 6” of concrete. What I didn’t know was that the sites maintenance team had cut a man-sized hole in the roof and didn’t report it, and when they heard that I was coming to inspect the roof had they foamed it in, and it blended in with the concrete. After doing the underdeck inspection I then went up onto the top of the roof to measure the distance from peak to peak and ended up falling through the foamed manhole 56 ½ feet to the ground. After that, I took Safety Risk to another level and shared my story with everyone I worked with to prevent the off chance this would ever happen to anyone else.

CI: Tell us about your favorite CI memory or success story.

My favorite memory was when I presented at the CI training event in Tampa Florida and got up on stage in front of everyone including my fellow HASA EHS Team members giving them the courage to follow in my footsteps and start volunteering with the Chlorine Institute in the future.

CI: What advice do you have for early career professionals in the chlor-alkali industry?

My advice would be not to be afraid to get involved in any of the CI Tasks Groups or even offer up your time to learn from and meet old and new members as to always be in the learning stage and assist with training events when they take place.

CI: What do you value most from your CI membership?

I have always valued all the CI members views to add me in new ideas of how to improve my team’s knowledge of handling chlorine.