OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14483549
T C I CORP. INC.
GHENT, NY·
Event description
EMPLOYEE KILLED AFTER INHALING FREON
Investigation abstract
On February 28, 1989, Employee #1 entered an enclosed vessel 11 ft 6 in. long, 6 ft 4 in. wide, and 10 ft high. The container was open on the top. Employee #1 w as cleaning the vessel with trichlorotrifluoroethane, Freon 113. He was in the v essel for approximately 15 minutes then left for approximately 15 to 30 minutes. Upon entering the vessel for a second time, Employee #1 became poisoned and col lapsed. He had been in the vessel the second time for less than 5 minutes. The v essel had no mechanical ventilation.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 21 Male
- Nature of injury
- Poisoning(Systemic) (17)
- Part of body
- LUNG (28)
- Accident type
- INHALATION (8)
- Source of injury
- GASES (19)
- Occupation
- Helpers, mechanics and repairers (864)
- Human factor
- INSUFF/LACK/ENGINEERNG CONTROLS (17)
- Environmental factor
- GAS/VAPOR/MIST/FUME/SMOKE/DUST (7)
- Hazardous substance
- T119
- Task assigned
- Task regularly assigned (1)
Labels are OSHA's own, from the code dictionary published with the accident-investigation file. The raw code is shown beside each one so this page can be reconciled against OSHA's bulk data. OSHA notes that nature of injury, part of body, source of injury and accident type in this file are not coded to the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System, and that the occupation titles are not standardised — so these values are not directly comparable with the OIICS-coded severe injury reports.