OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14257059
BURN,CAUSTIC,WORK RULES,CHEMICAL REACTION,CHEMICAL BURN,STRUCK BY,POWDER,UNTRAINED
Event description
CAUSTIC AND THERMAL BURN CAUSED BY CHEMICAL REACTION IN TANK
Investigation abstract
AT APPROXIMATELY 6:30 PM ON JULY 6, 1987, EMPLOYEE #1 WAS TOLD BY HIS SUPERVISOR A CHUNK THE SIZE OF A SOFTBALL FELL INTO THE TANK. THE TANK STARTED SPEWING OUT HOT CAUSTIC CHEMICALS. HE IMMEDIATELY TRIED TO ESCAPE THE AREA, BUT WAS HELD UP BY THE BARRELS STORED AROUND THE TANK, AND WAS STRUCK BY THE VENTING CHEMICALS. THE MATERIAL IN THE TANK WAS HEATED TO 180 DEGREES . THE EMPLOYEE SUFFERED BOTH CHEMICAL AND THERMAL BURNS TO 40% OF HIS BODY (ON HIS RIGHT SIDE). TO ADD SODA AND ANOTHER MATERIAL TO A CLEANING TANK IN THE COMPANY'S AUTOMATIC PLATING LINE. EMPLOYEE #1 HAD NEVER DONE THIS TASK BEFORE, AND WAS NOT MADE AWAR E OF EXACTLY WHAT HE WAS ADDING TO THE CLEANING TANK. HE FOUND THAT HE NEEDED TO BREAK UP THE MATERIAL (IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN A POWDERED FORM). HE LOADED AND CARRIED A 5 GALLON BUCKET OF THE MATERIAL FROM THE STORAGE AREA TO THE PLATING AREA. HIS INSTRUCTIONS WERE TO ADD THE MATERIAL WITH A SCOOP, BUT NEITHER HE NOR HIS SUPERVISOR COULD FIND ONE. HE WAS TOLD TO ADD THE MATERIAL SLOWLY, BUT WAS NOT SHOWN EXACTLY WHAT "SLOWLY" MEANT. AS HE WAS ADDING THE MATERIAL TO THE TANK
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 19 M
- Nature of injury
- 4
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 723
- Human factor
- 20
- Environmental factor
- 9
- Hazardous substance
- 2260
- Task assigned
- 2
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.