OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14390983
HIMONT U.S.A., INC.
LAKE CHARLES, LA·
Event description
EMPLOYEE DIED OF OXYGEN DEFICIENCY IN NITROGEN ENRICHED AIR
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1 WAS PLACING PHENOLIC NAME TAGS ON TESTING INSTRUMENTS INSIDE THE GAS CHROMATOGRAPH ROOM AT K-LINE. THE K-LINE GAS CHROMATOGRAPH WAS ON A NITROGEN BA CK-UP FOR INSTRUMENT AIR FOR ITS ANALYZERS TO KEEP THEM EXPLOSION-PROOF. AT THE TIME, THE ANALYZERS HAD 10 SCFM OF POSITIVE PRESSURE FROM THE INSTRUMENTS BEING PURGED INTO THE GAS CHROMATOGRAPH ROOM. THE GAS CHROMATOGRAPH ROOM'S ATMOSPHERE THEREFORE WAS NITROGEN ENRICHED WHEN EMPLOYEE #1 ENTERED TO PLACE THE TAGS. THE NITROGEN REPLACED THE OXYGEN IN THE ROOM'S ATMOSPHERE, CAUSING AN OXYGEN DEFICIE NCY. EMPLOYEE #1 DIED OF A LACK OF OXYGEN.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 37 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 14
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 1900
- 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.