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 #14442974

FRONT END LOADER,SODIUM CYANIDE,INHALATION,COLLISION,POISONING,DUST INHALATION,OVEREXPOSURE,ACCIDENTAL DISCHARGE

Event
FRONT END LOADER,SODIUM CYANIDE,INHALATION,COLLISION,POISONING,DUST INHALATION,OVEREXPOSURE,ACCIDENTAL DISCHARGE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14442974
Report ID
355124

Event description

Five employees exposed to sodium cyanide dust

Investigation abstract

At approximately 8:15 a.m. on Friday, May 12, 1989, the operator of a front end loader ran into a barrel of sodium cyanide in a waste pile at a trash shredding plant. The impact caused sodium cyanide dust to be dispersed into the air. Two w orkers removed the barrel from the plant and the plant was evacuated. All person nel were decontaminated by emergency response teams; Employees #1 through #5 wer e sent to the hospital for evaluation.

Victims (5)

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 29 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    14
    Occupation code
    856
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0790
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Hospitalized Age 28 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    14
    Occupation code
    856
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0790
    Task assigned
    1
  3. #3 Hospitalized Age 37 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    14
    Occupation code
    856
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0790
    Task assigned
    1
  4. #4 Hospitalized Age 29 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    14
    Occupation code
    856
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0790
    Task assigned
    1
  5. #5 Hospitalized Age 53 M

    Nature of injury
    17
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    14
    Occupation code
    856
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0790
    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.