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 #14398168

BENZENE,XYLENE,CLEANING,TOXIC ATMOSPHERE,TOXIC FUMES,TANK,WORK RULES,OVEREXPOSURE,RESPIRATOR,CONFINED SPACE

Event
BENZENE,XYLENE,CLEANING,TOXIC ATMOSPHERE,TOXIC FUMES,TANK,WORK RULES,OVEREXPOSURE,RESPIRATOR,CONFINED SPACE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14398168
Report ID
626600

Event description

Employees overexposed to vapors

Investigation abstract

The supervisor for the night crew at Houston Industrial Services wanted more wor ed treatment. The work site was closed down and all employees were sent home. Be tween 5:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m., employees arrived at Dansforth Hospital in Texas City, TX, for treatment. Thirteen employees were treated: eleven were admitted, and two were released. It was determined by the CPSI supervisor that the respira tors issued to the night crew were high efficiency filters instead of organic va por cartridges. According to CPSI, the tank contained wash water that had been u sed to clean a barge containing #6 oil. Analysis of the sludge found it containe d benzene, toluene, styrene, and xylene as major components. kers to help speed up a tank cleaning job. The company had depleted the local su pplier's stock of appropriate respirators. Additional respirators were ordered f rom the Houston location. Because it was the weekend and after hours, the order was made through an on-call person. After confirmation with the on-site supervis or, the order was shipped to the work site. Upon arrival, the respirators were i ssued to the employees and they entered the tank to commence the cleanup. After approximately two hours, around 2:30 a.m., Employees #1 through #13 began to get sick. One employee suffered a seizure. EMTs were called but all employees refus

Victims (15)

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 24 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0320
    Task assigned
    1

  2. #10 Hospitalized Age 32 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0320
    Task assigned
    1

  3. #11 Hospitalized Age 32 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0320
    Task assigned
    1

  4. #12 Non-hospitalized injury Age 39 F

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0320
    Task assigned
    1

  5. #13 Non-hospitalized injury Age 34 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0320
    Task assigned
    1

  6. #2 Hospitalized Age 21 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0320
    Task assigned
    1

  7. #3 Hospitalized Age 19 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0320
    Task assigned
    1

  8. #4 Hospitalized Age 23 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0320
    Task assigned
    1

  9. #5 Hospitalized Age 28 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0320
    Task assigned
    1

  10. #6 Hospitalized Age 24 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0320
    Task assigned
    1

  11. #7 Hospitalized Age 26 F

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0320
    Task assigned
    1

  12. #8 Hospitalized Age 19 F

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0320
    Task assigned
    1

  13. #9 Hospitalized Age 21 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0320
    Task assigned
    1

  14. #981 Degree 0 Age 0

    Nature of injury
    0
    Part of body
    0
    Event type
    0
    Source
    0
    Occupation code
    0
    Human factor
    0
    Environmental factor
    0
    Task assigned
    0

  15. #982 Degree 0 Age 0

    Nature of injury
    0
    Part of body
    0
    Event type
    0
    Source
    0
    Occupation code
    0
    Human factor
    0
    Environmental factor
    0
    Task assigned
    0

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.

← Back to accident search