OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14489363
AIR LINE RESPIRATOR,VENTILATION,CONFINED SPACE,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,INHALATION,LIVER,SPRAY PAINTING,CHEMICAL VAPOR,UNTRAINED
Event description
Employee killed after inhaling toxic vapors from spray paint
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 and coworkers were inside a 1 million gal water tank, spray painting the bottom with a red vinyl primer containing 2-nitropropane, toluene, and isob utyl acetate. Employee #1 suffered liver failure and was killed. The vapor from the primer was heavier than the air in the tank, creating an IDLH atmosphere. Ox ygen deficiency may also have been a factor in his death. The work was being con ducted in a confined space under strenuous and hot conditions. None of the emplo yees, who worked for a painting contractor, had training in confined space entry . They did not have forced ventilation or respiratory ppe.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 25 M
- Nature of injury
- 17
- Part of body
- 27
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 9
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 1941
- 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.