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 #779603

SHEET METAL,CONSTRUCTION,EAR,NOISE,POWDER ACTUATED TOOL

Event
SHEET METAL,CONSTRUCTION,EAR,NOISE,POWDER ACTUATED TOOL
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
779603
Report ID
953210

Event description

Employee's eardrum broken by loud noise

Investigation abstract

Employee #1, a sheet metal worker, was hanging sheet metal ducts with a Hilti DX 36M powder- actuated tool using red shots #SdF22p8t (the hottest and strongest). He was shooting metal hanger straps into Q decking that was 22 gauge thick and would be covered with 3 in. of concrete. The straps are used to hold up the shee t metal duct work. The area Employee #1 was working in had some steel studs in p lace for partitions and some unfinished sheet rock had been put up. Employee #1' s eardrum was broken by a loud impact noise.

Victim

  1. #1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 22 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    6
    Event type
    1
    Source
    47
    Occupation code
    596
    Human factor
    14
    Environmental factor
    16
    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.