105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #1005321

WORK RULES,INHALATION,EQUIPMENT FAILURE,EXPLOSION,PROPYLENE,TOXIC FUMES,CHEMICAL

Event
WORK RULES,INHALATION,EQUIPMENT FAILURE,EXPLOSION,PROPYLENE,TOXIC FUMES,CHEMICAL
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
1005321
Report ID
253650

Event description

Four employees exposed to propylene oxide after explosion

Investigation abstract

Employee #1, a biology professor, removed two 1-quart glass bottles of propylene oxide from a freezer, and placed them overnight under a laboratory hood. One of the bottles exploded, exposing Employees #1 through #4 to chemical vapors, for which they were hospitalized. Employee #1 said that there was probably a crack i n the bottle, resulting in a pressurized explosion. There is no other apparent e xplanation because the other bottle did not explode.

Victims (4)

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 30 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    2215
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Hospitalized Age 28 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    2215
    Task assigned
    1
  3. #3 Hospitalized Age 30 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    2215
    Task assigned
    1
  4. #4 Hospitalized Age 32 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    2215
    Task assigned
    1

Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.