OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221446289

SUN CHEMICAL CORPORATION

NEWPORT, DE· 2022-01-30T00:00:00

Event: Amputated, Amputation, Bypass, Bypass Guard, Catch Point, Caught In, Chemical, Clogged, Cover, Engineering Controls, Finger, Hand, Inexperience, Insufficient Supervision, Knuckle, Lack of Engineering Controls, Lack of Work Procedures, Loading, Lockout, Lockout/Tagout, Material Handling, Misjudgment, Misjudgment of Hazardous Situation, Panel, Partial Amputation, Pinched, Rotating Parts, Sheared, Supervision, Unstable Position, Valve
NAICS: 325130
Inspection type: Referral
Activity number: #345758395
Employer profile: SUN CHEMICAL CORPORATION
Summary number: 221446289
Report ID: 0317300

Event description

Employee amputates finger when reaching into rotating valve

Investigation abstract

At 12:50 p.m. on January 30, 2022, an employee was working on the ground see if he could unclog the system. The employee was struck by the vane valve as a result. The employee amputated his index finger to the first knuckle. The employer's onsite response team (fire brigade) responded to a "code blue" and provided first aid to the employee, who was transported to the hospital for emergency medical care. The employee was discharged from the hospital at 8:00 pm on the same day. finishing the connection of a tote-sized sac of crystalline chemical to an Iris process feed chute. The crystals feed by gravity down the chute through the Iris and then through a rotating vane valve. There are two panels (ports) covering the vane valve. According to a coworker (EH&S Manager), operators are not instructed to remove the ports during the process. Apparently, the sac emptied into the chute only halfway before the chemical got struck and blocked the chute bottom and/or side walls and/or within the vane valve. The employee reported that he opened one of the panels and reached in with his right hand to

Victim

#1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 52 M

Event type
2

Occupation code
224

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.