OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #722074
LUNG,ASPHYXIATED,VENTILATION,METHYLENE CHLORIDE,CLEANING,PAINT SOLVENT,POISONING
Event description
WOMAN KILLED WHILE CLEANING TANK WITH PAINT REMOVER
Investigation abstract
The deceased was cleaning a 1600 gallon vat which was used to hold ink, using a mist of paint stripper and decal remover which contained methylene chloride. The deceased was found by her husband, slumped over on the vat. He called in emerge ncy help but it was too late. The deceased was not an employee of the company bu t was the wife of the business owner. Eight 16 ounce cans of paint stripper were found empty on the floor. The autopsy report stated the cause of death was meth ylene chloride inhalation and listed it as an accident. The wife was waiting for her husband to have lunch.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 20 F
- Nature of injury
- 17
- Part of body
- 31
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 14
- Environmental factor
- 7
- 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.