OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #170188908
EYE,CAUSTIC,METHYLENE CHLORIDE,WORK RULES,INEXPERIENCE,CHEMICAL BURN,ACCIDENTAL DISCHARGE,PRESSURE RELEASE,CHEMICAL
Event description
Employee's eyes injured when sprayed by methylene chloride
Investigation abstract
At 6:45 a.m. on April 6, 1990, Employee #1 and a coworker were using a rotary pu r station did not increase the severity of his injury; the water hose was adjace nt to the incident site and therefore used first. Employee #1 did not normally w ork in this area, but was helping out; both he and the coworker were wearing cov eralls, gloves, and face shields. The cause of the accident was a procedural fai lure, of closing the transfer valve prior to shutting down the pump. The employe r has stopped using this process and chemical transfer has been made completely automatic. Specific procedures for manual transfer have also been put in place s hould the need arise. The employer was cited for a violation of T8CCR 5162(e) fo r not maintaining the emergency eyewash/shower station on a monthly basis. mp and 20 ft of 1/2 in. line to off-load methylene chloride paint stripper from 55-gallon drums into a bulk container truck. After completing the job, Employee #1 closed the transfer valve before shutting down the rotary pump, creating some pressure in the 1/2 in. line. When he went to disconnect the line, the excess p ressure caused the residual chemical to spray into his face. The coworker flushe d Employee #1's face and eyes with water from a hose, even though they were only 30 ft from an emergency eyewash station. Employee #1 sustained chemical irritat ion to both eyes and was hospitalized for treatment. Not using the eyewash/showe
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 55 M
- Nature of injury
- 4
- Part of body
- 8
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 73
- Human factor
- 4
- Environmental factor
- 8
- Hazardous substance
- 1730
- 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.