OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #734897

MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

CHARLESTON, SC· 1987-02-24T00:00:00

Event: OXYGEN DEFICIENCY, ASPHYXIATED, WORK RULES, INHALATION, NITROUS OXIDE
NAICS: 000000
Inspection type: Accident-driven
Activity number: #105446728
Employer profile: MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Summary number: 734897
Report ID: 454520

Event description

Employee dies after intentionally inhaling nitrous oxide

Investigation abstract

Employee #1 was a work study student employed as a dishwasher in a laboratory. W hile he was in the lab, he filled a plastic trash bag with nitrous oxide, then p laced it over his head and inhaled. He passed out and died. The cause of death w as listed as anoxic brain death.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 33 M

Nature of injury
2

Part of body
4

Event type
8

Source
19

Occupation code
999

Human factor
1

Environmental factor
18

Hazardous substance
1953

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.