OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #709337

OXYGEN DEFICIENCY,ACETYLENE TORCH,CONFINED SPACE,WORK RULES,INHALATION,TORCH,CARBOXYHEMOGLOBIN,MANHOLE,CARBON MONOXIDE,CUTTING AND BURNING

1986-04-09T00:00:00

Event: OXYGEN DEFICIENCY,ACETYLENE TORCH,CONFINED SPACE,WORK RULES,INHALATION,TORCH,CARBOXYHEMOGLOBIN,MANHOLE,CARBON MONOXIDE,CUTTING AND BURNING
Linked inspection: No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number: 709337
Report ID: 854910

Event description

Employee welding in manhole has elevated carboxyhemoglobin

Investigation abstract

Employee #1 was working in a manhole that was 4 ft deep by about 4 ft in diamete r. He was using an oxygen-acetylene unit with a burning assembly to cut old bolt s and nuts from a water meter. He felt sick that night after work and went to th e hospital where his carboxyhemoglobin level was found to be 22 percent.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 40 M

Nature of injury
2

Part of body
29

Event type
8

Source
19

Occupation code
999

Human factor
1

Environmental factor
7

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.