104,543Records 70,659Employers 84,666Hospitalizations 27,563Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-09-30
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14399307

TRICHLOROETHANE,UNCONSCIOUSNESS,CLEANING,INHALATION,CLEANING FLUID,TOXIC FUMES

Event
TRICHLOROETHANE,UNCONSCIOUSNESS,CLEANING,INHALATION,CLEANING FLUID,TOXIC FUMES
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14399307
Report ID
626300

Event description

EMPLOYEE DELIBERATELY INHALED HAZARDOUS VAPORS

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1, NEW TO THE JOB, HAD A HISTORY OF INHALING VARIOUS HAZARDOUS MATERIA LS IN ORDER TO GET "HIGH." THIS HISTORY WAS UNKNOWN TO THE EMPLOYER. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS ASSIGNED TO USE 1,1,1 TRICHLOROETHANE TO CLEAN OLD GLUE FROM LETTERS THAT H AD FALLEN OFF A GAME MACHINE. HE WAS THEN TO REGLUE THE LETTERS. HE WAS WORKING IN A SHOP AREA OF A PIZZA PARLOR/ENTERTAINMENT CENTER KNOWN AS THE "TECH ROOM." EMPLOYEE #1 DELIBERATELY PLACED HIS NOSE AND MOUTH OVER THE LID OPENING OF A 1-G ALLON CAN OF SOLVENT AND INHALED THE VAPORS. AFTER DOING THIS REPEATEDLY, HE BEC AME UNCONSCIOUS. ALL EFFORTS TO REVIVE HIM FAILED.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 16 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    1720
    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.