OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14511968

HERCULES, INC.

MCGREGOR, TX· 1987-02-25T00:00:00

Event: TRICHLOROETHANE, ASPHYXIATED, VAPOR, WORK RULES, CLEANING, TOXIC ATMOSPHERE, INHALATION, CLEANING FLUID, CHEMICAL VAPOR, TOXIC FUMES
NAICS: 000000
Inspection type: Accident-driven
Activity number: #102446994
Employer profile: HERCULES, INC.
Summary number: 14511968
Report ID: 625400

Event description

Employee dies of acute trichloroethane intoxication

Investigation abstract

At approximately 4:45 p.m. on February 25, 1987, Employee #1 was doing a final m anual cleaning of a mixing bowl to remove scuff marks. The 45 in. deep by 56 in. diameter bowl was to be used to mix solid rocket propellants. He was supposed t o use a mop attached to a 5 ft broom handle to clean the bowl, but apparently go t inside it. Employee #1 was using 1, 1, 1-trichloroethane and was overcome by t he fumes. He was found dead inside the mixing bowl as a result of acute trichlor oethane intoxication.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 26 M

Nature of injury
2

Part of body
4

Event type
8

Source
10

Occupation code
999

Human factor
1

Environmental factor
7

Hazardous substance
0670

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.