OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #674259
GENERAL SERVICES INC., DIV. OF POWER PLANT MAINT.
BEECH ISLAND, SC·
Event description
Employees suffer symptoms during hazardous chemical cleanup
Investigation abstract
Employees #1 and #2 were called to clean up a spill of polychlorinated biphenols t the hospital with nausea shots and pills, and then released. (PCBs) that had occurred in a basement. A coworker had been tapping on a cable lead with a hammer and screwdriver to disconnect a power lead cable from a trans former that was being removed. The transformer ruptured and the chemical spilled . Employees #1 and #2 were instructed to get PCB cleanup kits containing absorbe nt cloth, protective clothing--full suit with booties and gloves--and a liquid a lkaline solution called Power Cleaner 155, manufactured by the Penetone Corporat ion. During cleanup, the employees had symptoms of digestive tract disturbances, headaches, and respiratory tract irritation. Employees #1 and #2 were treated a
Victims (3)
-
#1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 21 M
- Nature of injury
- 17
- Part of body
- 31
- Event type
- 10
- Source
- 10
- Occupation code
- 453
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 9
- Hazardous substance
- 0630
- Task assigned
- 2
-
#2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 19 M
- Nature of injury
- 17
- Part of body
- 31
- Event type
- 10
- Source
- 10
- Occupation code
- 453
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 9
- Hazardous substance
- 0630
- Task assigned
- 2
-
#981 Degree 0 Age 0
- Nature of injury
- 0
- Part of body
- 0
- Event type
- 0
- Source
- 0
- Occupation code
- 0
- Human factor
- 0
- Environmental factor
- 0
- Task assigned
- 0
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.