OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14371843
EYE,MUCOUS MEMBRANE,CHEMICAL REACTION,SKIN,BROMO ACETONE
Event description
CHEMICAL REACTION; IRRITATING CHEMICAL RELEASED
Investigation abstract
THE PROCESS IN PROGRESS AT THE TIME OF THE EVENT WAS THE MANUFACTURE OF METHATRE OF THE EVENT WAS FAILURE TO REMOVE ACETONE, WHICH HAD BEEN USED FOR CLEANING, F ROM THE CHARGING POT. XATE, AN ANTI-CANCER DRUG. SHORTLY AFTER EMPLOYEE #1 BEGAN TO DRAW BROMINE LIQUI D INTO THE SUPPOSEDLY CLEAN AND EMPTY CHARGING POT, HE HEARD A HISSING SOUND. HE THEN SAW A PURPLE HAZE SPEWING OUT FROM UNDER THE LID OF THE POT. ANALYSIS OF T HE RESIDUE LEFT BEHIND INSIDE THE CHARGING POT SHOWED THAT BROMINE HAD REACTED V IGOROUSLY AND EXOTHERMICALLY WITH ACETONE TO FORM BROMO ACETONE AND HYDROGEN BRO MIDE. BROMO ACETONE IS A PURPLE SUBSTANCE WHICH IS EXTREMELY IRRITATING TO THE E YES AND HIGHLY IRRITATING TO ALL MUCOUS MEMBRANES AND THE SKIN. SIXTEEN EMPLOYEE S WERE TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL, TREATED FOR EYE IRRITATION AND RELEASED. THE CAUSE
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 40 M
- Nature of injury
- 4
- Part of body
- 8
- Event type
- 10
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 11
- Environmental factor
- 9
- Hazardous substance
- 0390
- 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.