105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #758417

DRUM,SMOKING,TOXIC FUMES,CHEMICAL,HIGH TEMPERATURE

Event
DRUM,SMOKING,TOXIC FUMES,CHEMICAL,HIGH TEMPERATURE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
758417
Report ID
551800

Event description

Fifteen employees exposed to toxic fumes

Investigation abstract

At 4:00 a.m. on May 3, 1988, Employee #3 saw that a drum of ISOSET 4305, an epox the heater's rheostat control had been changed to 7.5 from the prescribed setti ng of 3.5. y resin solution, was smoking. Employee #3 summoned Employee #1, and the two of them removed the deflagrating drum from within the building to the outside. This process took ten minutes because of the fume emissions and the heat from the dr um. Employees #1 and #3 continued working until 6:15 a.m. when they and thirteen other employees were transported by ambulance to a hospital and given a precaut ionary exam. Employees #1 through #15 were released without hospitalization. An electrically-energized barrel heater had been attached to the outside circumfere nce of the drum. The chemicals in the drum had overheated and decomposed because

Victims (15)

  1. #1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 57 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    633
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    1430
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #10 Non-hospitalized injury Age 33 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    766
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    1430
    Task assigned
    1
  3. #11 Non-hospitalized injury Age 25 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    766
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    1430
    Task assigned
    1
  4. #12 Non-hospitalized injury Age 57 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    766
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    1430
    Task assigned
    1
  5. #13 Non-hospitalized injury Age 24 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    766
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    1430
    Task assigned
    1
  6. #14 Non-hospitalized injury Age 46 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    766
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    1430
    Task assigned
    1
  7. #15 Non-hospitalized injury Age 34 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    766
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    1430
    Task assigned
    1
  8. #2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 23 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    796
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    1430
    Task assigned
    1
  9. #3 Non-hospitalized injury Age 23 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    766
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    1430
    Task assigned
    1
  10. #4 Non-hospitalized injury Age 34 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    766
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    1430
    Task assigned
    1
  11. #5 Non-hospitalized injury Age 53 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    766
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    1430
    Task assigned
    1
  12. #6 Non-hospitalized injury Age 24 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    766
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    1430
    Task assigned
    1
  13. #7 Non-hospitalized injury Age 38 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    766
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    1430
    Task assigned
    1
  14. #8 Non-hospitalized injury Age 22 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    766
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    1430
    Task assigned
    1
  15. #9 Non-hospitalized injury Age 22 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    766
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    9
    Hazardous substance
    1430
    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.