OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #766378
PEASE & CURREN RELIABLE RECOVERY, INC.
ANAHEIM, CA·
Event description
Employee killed when dried precious metal sludge explodes
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 was handling sludge from waste silver nitric acid that had been bein g air dried outdoors for several days in preparation for further processing to r emove the metal. The sludge exploded violently, killing him. Apparently, the dri ed sludge became a heat- and shock-sensitive explosive, which went off when Empl oyee #1 was moving the tray of material. The employer is in the business of proc essing and reclaiming precious metals from industrial wastes.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 30 Male
- Nature of injury
- Concussion (6)
- Part of body
- MULTIPLE (19)
- Accident type
- SHOCK (13)
- Source of injury
- METAL PRODUCTS (28)
- Occupation
- Occupation not reported (999)
- Human factor
- MISJUDGMENT, HAZ. SITUATION (1)
- Environmental factor
- CHEMICAL ACTION/REACTION EXPOS (9)
- Hazardous substance
- 2240
- Task assigned
- Task regularly assigned (1)
Labels are OSHA's own, from the code dictionary published with the accident-investigation file. The raw code is shown beside each one so this page can be reconciled against OSHA's bulk data. OSHA notes that nature of injury, part of body, source of injury and accident type in this file are not coded to the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System, and that the occupation titles are not standardised — so these values are not directly comparable with the OIICS-coded severe injury reports.