OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14299358
LEAK,PPE,WORK RULES,CHLORINE,TOXIC FUMES,UNTRAINED,ACCIDENTAL DISCHARGE,RESPIRATOR
Event description
Employee hospitalized briefly for chlorine exposure
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 was changing a chlorine cylinder at a water treatment plant when a c onnection between the 150 lb cylinder and a regulator leaked. He tried two times to tighten the connection, but failed. Employee #1 suffered severe coughing and throat irritation and was hospitalized for a few hours for therapy and supporti ve care. The causal factor was most likely a lead washer that did not seat prope rly when the connection was tightened. Employee #1 had received minimal training on changing cylinders; he had changed one or two by himself. He used PPE but ha d not received training in its use.
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 28 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 31
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 699
- Human factor
- 19
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 0640
- 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.